‘Golden day’

With the Tatas formally setting foot on the plot where once stood the country’s largest paper mill to establish the Rs 27,000-crore semiconductor assembly and test facility, August 3, 2024, will now go down in the history of Assam’s socio-economic history as a “golden day.” As Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has pointed out, once operational, the semiconductor assembly facility will transform the industrial landscape of Assam and herald a new era of growth. Nobody had ever imagined even one year ago that Jagiroad would spring back to life after the HPC’s massive paper mill had met a tragic death, largely due to mismanagement and a lack of foresight by the government. While the first phase of the facility is expected to be operational by the middle of 2025, the greenfield project is expected to generate employment opportunities for more than 30,000 people. As has been stated, the Tatas will build the facility focusing on three key platform technologies: wire bond, flip chip, and a differentiated offering called integrated systems packaging (ISP), with plans to expand the roadmap to advanced packaging technologies in the future. Semiconductor assembly and testing is a critical part of the value chain, where wafers manufactured by semiconductor fabs are assembled or packaged and then tested before they are finally used in the desired product. What, however, should now be the priority of the government of Assam is to ensure that a sizable chunk of the 30,000 jobs are filled up by young talents from the region. The government, however, should simultaneously also ensure that the so-called “nationalist” organizations, most of which thrive on forcible donations and agitations, do not get close to Jagiroad and create a situation where the investors become wary of threats, agitations, and extortion. It is for the Government of Assam to also make sure that the best talents of the country are drawn to Jagiroad so that it does not meet the kind of fate the HPC paper mill had met. Jagiroad is an opportunity to also attract other investors to Assam, so that Guwahati and Jagiroad become the new IT hub of the country. Taking a cue from how the Government of Assam had put Jagiroad through a 180-degree turn-around, one would suggest that the Chief Minister now take up the issue of the Namrup fertilizer factory. Asia’s first gas-based fertilizer plant, the Namrup fertilizer factory, was established despite then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s decision to shift it to West Bengal in the backdrop of the Chinese aggression of 1962. Though Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizer JP Nadda has given a verbal assurance of releasing Rs 500 crore to modernize the Namrup plants, what it requires is a direct push by the Chief Minister. Additionally, the government of Assam should also consider establishing an engineering college at Namrup. One must remember that there is not a single engineering college in upper Assam beyond Jorhat.