Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 9 April 2026 the Government of India, exercising powers under section 4(1) of the Special Economic Zones Act 2005, gazetted a 66.166-hectare sector-specific Special Economic Zone at Dholera Special Investment Region, Gujarat for Tata Semiconductor Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd, exclusively for electronic hardware, software and IT/ITES. The notification is the statutory site- enabling instrument for India's first commercial-scale wafer-fab plant — a ~INR 91,000 crore (~USD 11bn) Tata Electronics / PSMC (Powerchip, Taiwan) joint project announced under India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 1.0 in February 2024 — and follows the Letter of Approval issued on 17 March 2026. The same notification designates the SEZ as an Inland Container Depot under the Customs Act 1962 with effect from 9 April 2026, enabling on-site customs clearance for fab inputs.

On 1 February 2026 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting the Union Budget 2026-27, announced the launch of India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0 — the second-phase national semiconductor industrial-policy framework succeeding ISM 1.0 (2021, INR 76,000 crore). The Budget makes an initial INR 1,000 crore provision for ISM 2.0 in FY 2026-27 and raises the Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) outlay from INR 22,919 crore to INR 40,000 crore. ISM 2.0's distinct architecture centres on four strategic priorities not in ISM 1.0: (i) indigenous semiconductor equipment, chemicals, gases and materials production, (ii) full-stack Indian semiconductor IP design, (iii) industry-led R&D and skills/training centres, and (iv) domestic and global supply-chain integration. Total mission outlay reported as approximately INR 1-1.2 lakh crore (~USD 12-14bn) is being finalised; Cabinet clearance and the formal scheme launch are expected by mid-2026.

The Legislative Yuan of Taiwan (ROC) passed amendments to Article 22 of the Statute for Industrial Innovation (產業創新條例) and added a new Article 67-3 on third reading on 18 April 2025, promulgated by Presidential Decree on 7 May 2025. The package establishes for the first time a Taiwanese OUTBOUND-investment screening regime under the Statute: outbound investments by Taiwanese entities meeting the amount threshold (NTD 1.5bn, or lower as determined) OR involving designated countries/regions OR specific industries or technologies must obtain prior approval from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) before implementation. The competent authority may deny approval (in whole or in part) or impose conditional approval where particular circumstances are identified — including risks to national security, harm to economic development or supply-chain resilience, conflict with international treaties, or violation of labour-standards law. The new Article 67-3 establishes enforcement penalties ranging from NTD 50,000 to NTD 1,000,000 for initial non-compliance violations and NTD 500,000 to NTD 10,000,000 per violation for failure to comply with conditions, restrictions, or undertakings imposed by MOEA under Article 22 Paragraph 3. Effective dates of implementing provisions are to be determined by Executive Yuan secondary legislation; the package is structurally novel for Taiwan — the first horizontal outbound-investment-security instrument and the structural parallel to the US Treasury Final Rule on Outbound Investment in Countries of Concern (28 October 2024 / effective 2 January 2025), the EU Commission Recommendation 2025/63, and Korea's MOTIE NCT regime.

The Union Cabinet approved the Semicon India Programme on 15 December 2021, establishing the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) as the nodal agency. The programme offers fiscal support of up to 50% of project cost for silicon semiconductor fabs, compound semiconductor facilities, display fabs, ATMP/OSAT units, and chip design. Total outlay: Rs 76,000 crore (approximately $10.2bn at 2021 exchange rates). By February 2024, the Cabinet had approved three major semiconductor units under ISM: Tata Electronics with PSMC (semiconductor fab, Dholera, Rs 91,526 crore), Tata Electronics OSAT (Morigaon, Assam, Rs 27,120 crore), and CG Power OSAT (Rs 7,584 crore), totalling over Rs 1.26 lakh crore in committed investment from private applicants.