An Indian deep-tech startup was awarded a ₹70-crore capital grant under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s advanced manufacturing scheme to establish domestic production of integrated photonic circuits.
The capital grant will fund the establishment of specialized fabrication and packaging facilities for silicon photonics, high-speed optical transceivers, and laser communication components. Photonic integrated circuits utilize light particles rather than electronic currents to process and transmit data, providing significantly higher data transmission speeds, reduced latency, and lower power consumption for telecommunications networks, cloud computing data centers, and defense hardware.
Government officials noted that the grant supports the India Semiconductor Mission’s objective of establishing self-reliance in critical deep-technology domains. Developing domestic photonics manufacturing capability will mitigate dependence on foreign optical component imports and support domestic technological innovation.
The startup plans to deploy the capital grant over the next eighteen months to build cleanroom fabrication facilities and collaborate with research institutions to scale commercial production.
Photonic integrated circuits combine optical waveguides, modulators, and photodetectors onto semiconductor wafers, addressing critical electrical bottlenecks that limit conventional microchips at high bandwidths. MeitY officials stated that the ₹70-crore capital infusion will accelerate pilot fabrication line construction and establish cleanroom testbeds, enabling Indian deep-tech engineers to produce specialized optical transceivers for domestic telecommunications and defense hardware.
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