Foxconn Dropping Out of $19.5 Billion Joint-venture With Vedanta Won't Impact India: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Foxconn’s withdrawal from its $19.5 billion semi conductor joint-venture with Vedanta will have no impact on India, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

Speaking exclusively to News18, Vaishnaw assured that “both the companies are completely committed to India’s semiconductor mission and Make In India push.”

This comes as Taiwan’s Foxconn announced its withdrawal from a $19.5 billion joint venture with Indian metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta, in a major setback to the government’s chipmaking ambitions.

This comes after Opposition leaders continue to take a dig at the BJP-led government at centre over the issue.

Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray in a tweet said, “this project, as we’ve said many times earlier, was completely feasible in Maharashtra. The Govt of Maharashtra must also clarify why, even after illegal cm announcing in the assembly, and dcm meeting them, this project shifted from a highly feasible location- Pune district to Gujarat suddenly.”

“This is a loss for India, and Maharashtra could have propelled this growth story for India,” Thackeray added.

Apart from him, Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also commented on the issue saying, “taking it away from Maharashtra to Gujarat – which by experts wasn’t conducive for semiconductor industry, inability to raise funds as expected has led to the collapse of an idea before it even began. Such a tragedy.”

Joining the chorus, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has also hit out at the Modi government and said “Remember the publicity at the time of announcing the project? Gujarat CM even claimed 1 lakh jobs will be created!

“This has been the fate of many MOUs signed in Vibrant Gujarat summits year after year, and will be the fate in other such copycat summits like Global Investor Summits in UP. Whether Gujarat Model or ‘New India’ never trust the manufactured headlines,” he added.

This comes Taiwan-based Hon Hai Technology Group, Foxconn, put out an official statement in which it said, “in order to explore more diverse development opportunities, according to mutual agreement, Foxconn has determined it will not move forward on the joint venture with Vedanta,”.

“We will continue to grow our Semiconductor team, and we have the license for production-grade technology for 40nm [chips] from a prominent Integrated Device Manufacturer (IDM). India remains pivotal in repositioning global semiconductor supply chains,” Vedanta added.