The foundation stone for India’s first advanced 3D chip packaging unit was laid in Bhubaneswar, a project which IT Secretary S Krishnan can put the country “on the map” in terms of advanced chip packaging, and one the government will be watching “very closely”.Last year, under its Rs 76,000 crore India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), the government had approved a Rs 1,934 crore 3D glass chip packaging facility in Odisha, led by US-based 3D Glass Solutions, will produce glass substrate panels and advanced 3D heterogeneous integration (3DHI) modules, with applications spanning artificial intelligence, 5G, defence and data centres. The project has received investments from Intel, Lockheed Martin, and other VC and PE funds.It is among the ten plants that have been approved under the ambitious scheme, including a chip fabrication plant being built by the Tata Group, and a number of other assembly and testing plants including the US-based Micron Technology, among others.“The significance of this particular project is something that we need to dwell on. Amongst all the ten projects that we have already approved under the India Semiconductor Mission, this is the one project which represents truly advanced packaging, this is technology which is new, which is novel,” Krishan said during his address at the plant’s ground breaking ceremony Sunday.“This is the one project in the first phase of the ISM which will put India at the cutting edge of technology in terms of advanced packaging, using glass as a substrate, which is very unique, and making sure that we part of the 3D packaging drive which is one way of attempting to beat the Moore’s law in semiconductors… This is one project that we will watch very closely…” he added.What are 3D glass semiconductors, and how are they different from traditional chips?Unlike traditional semiconductor manufacturing, which relies heavily on silicon wafers and planar (2D) packaging, the Odisha facility will deploy glass-based substrates and 3D stacking technologies. These allow multiple chip components to be vertically integrated, dramatically increasing computing power within the same footprint. Glass substrates offer better thermal stability, lower signal loss, and higher precision for advanced nodes.Also Read | Eye on making Delhi hub for research, design, govt begins drafting semiconductor policyMore broadly, the promise of 3D glass chip technology is tied to the future of computing itself. As devices – from smartphones to autonomous systems – demand more power in smaller spaces, stacking chips vertically and integrating diverse components (logic, memory, sensors) becomes essential. This “heterogeneous integration” could enable faster AI models, more efficient data centres, and advanced defence electronics.Story continues below this adMoore’s Law, invented in 1965 by Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel, states that the number of transistors on a chip would roughly double every two years, driving exponential gains in computing power while reducing costs. For decades, it served as the guiding principle of the semiconductor industry. However, as chips approach physical and thermal limits at advanced nodes, this pace has slowed, pushing the industry toward alternatives like advanced packaging, chiplets and 3D integration to sustain performance improvements.Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said that the facility is expected to produce 70,000 glass panels annually, along with 50 million assembled units. It is among the two plants in the state that had received approval under the ISM and around 13,000 advanced 3DHI modules, Majhi said. The project will generate around 2,500 direct and indirect jobs.India’s semiconductor pushLaunched in 2021 with a Rs 76,000-crore outlay, the India Semiconductor Mission was conceived as a state-backed push to build a full-stack chip ecosystem, from fabrication and packaging to design and display manufacturing. Under the scheme, ten semiconductor projects have been approved so far across six states, drawing investments of over Rs 1.6 lakh crore. These include fabrication plants, OSAT (assembly, testing, packaging) units and design-linked incentives.The government is understood to be working on the next iteration of the plan, and could approve a scheme with an outlay of around $11 billion, The Indian Express had earlier reported. However, under the revised scheme, the priorities of the government might change. While ISM 1.0 focused on attracting chipmaking infrastructure to India, ISM 2.0 is likely to offer greater support to ancillary industries such as gases, chemicals and capital goods, among others.Story continues below this adISM 2.0 could also see a much more significant design-side push, and tie incentives to the amount of market capital companies are able to raise.