Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated by video conference in the groundbreaking ceremony for the HCL-Foxconn semiconductor unit in Uttar Pradesh, which was presented as a significant milestone in India’s drive to become a global semiconductor hub. The event followed the Global AI Impact Summit in New Delhi and was framed as part of a broader strategy to strengthen the domestic technology ecosystem and attract global partners. He emphasised that the government is pursuing Viksit Bharat with renewed momentum and noted that India accelerated its pace since the beginning of 2026. The Prime Minister cited recent initiatives including the Viksit Bharat Young Leaders Dialogue, National Startup Day and the India Energy Summit as indicators of rapid progress and renewed investor confidence. He characterised the current decade as India’s Techade and outlined a focus on investments in green energy, space technology, digital technologies and artificial intelligence as foundations for twenty first century capability. The development of a robust semiconductor ecosystem was presented as a practical example of this strategy, intended to secure processing power for critical sectors and support long term technological self reliance. He said that the pandemic exposed fragility in global chip supply chains and that India chose to convert that challenge into an opportunity by aiming for self reliance in chip manufacturing. He highlighted initiatives such as the Chips to Startup scheme set to train 85,000 specialists, the Semiconductor Mission’s second phase and the establishment of Rare Earth Corridors to support end to end research, development and manufacturing. The Prime Minister noted that Uttar Pradesh is expected to emerge as a major centre for design houses, research and development and startup ecosystems, creating significant employment opportunities for youth, and he attributed much of the state’s transformation to sustained policy focus on infrastructure and industry. He also acknowledged HCL Technologies and Foxconn for their partnership and signalled that foreign participation will increase the resilience of global value chains while benefiting India’s manufacturing ambitions.