SlayyTech

Vedanta Ltd, owned by billionaire Anil Agarwal and located in Bangalore, announced it would take control from its holding company of Foxconn International Co, Taiwan’s joint venture established last year to produce semiconductors. Furthermore, they indicated their intent to acquire display glass ventures. This move comes only a week after India’s market regulator issued Vedanta with an $85,000 penalty for violating regulations by making disclosures which implied they were working together with Foxconn on this venture.

VFSL had signed memorandums of understanding with the Gujarat government in September 2022 to set up units for chip production and display fabrication, marking an important step in India’s efforts to become an international manufacturing hub – marking its inaugural major investment under an incentive scheme which promised subsidies worth $10 billion.

Foxconn announced its withdrawal on Monday, saying they are no longer willing to invest in the project and seek termination of contracts with VFSL. Their move had long been anticipated due to falling demand for iPhones as well as concerns surrounding their Dholera factory – however this decision came at no great surprise as Foxconn is also planning a second factory in China with plans of hiring 100,000 workers there.

On Tuesday, India’s government downplayed this development, saying it “changes nothing about our semiconductor goals”. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s minister for electronics and information technology added that both companies could pursue their strategies for India without interference.

Vedanta announced it has already lined up partners in order to fulfill its commitments for semiconductor fab projects, though did not name them. Furthermore, it resubmitted its application for incentives under India’s new version of semiconductor programme which now allows applicants with production-grade technology or letters of intent from partners to apply as soon as they have secured one or have their commitment secured by an agreement in principle from one.

Vedanta’s revised application would permit them to begin manufacturing 40 nanometer (nm) chips in India from early 2022 if approved; this represents an upgrade over the current 28 nm chips produced at VFSL, giving Vedanta greater access to production-linked incentives.

Vedanta may benefit from its resubmission in chipmaking, though it will likely struggle against Foxconn’s massive facilities. Foxconn is the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronic devices; its China plants produce around 60 million smartphones every month; this compares with 15 million from Vedanta operations which include AvanStrate Ltd – purchased as an acquisition in 2016. Vedanta boasts oil and gas reserves, copper, zinc, aluminium and iron ore deposits and infrastructure projects such as ports, power and steel projects with an estimated market value of roughly $8.5 billion.

Indian space agency ISRO sees India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission aimed at landing a rover and lander on the Moon this month as an essential step toward human spaceflight, according to its chief. Additionally, this adds momentum towards sending equipment onto lunar surfaces worldwide – particularly its south pole believed to contain water ice that could sustain human presence there but unfortunately three out of the last four attempts have failed so far.

Chandrayaan-3 could make history when successful; becoming only the fourth Asian nation after United States, former Soviet Union and China to land successfully on the Moon.

India can take great pride in the success of its homegrown space program, which has since evolved into an expanding network of private start-ups. International partners also expressed confidence in India’s ability to undertake crewed space travel in future missions.

Chandrayaan-3 will use the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), with launch scheduled for July 14 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. Once in Earth parking orbit, mission team can use its stability to verify all components are operating as intended before beginning its deep space journey. Once on lunar transfer trajectory, landing and rover missions will orbit around their respective lunar bodies close to those that orbit Earth itself.

At this stage, the lander will separate from its propulsion module and alter its orbit so as to come closer to the Moon. Once close enough, it will initiate soft landing procedures. After it touches down on its target site, rover will gather photographs of it for analysis.

Chandrayaan-3 features seven scientific payloads with varied purposes. RAMBHA will measure changes to lunar ionosphere density over time. The Lunar Seismic Activity Sensor can detect seismic activities on the Moon’s surface. The Large Area Soft X-Ray Spectometer will use Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram Lander/Rover as a basis to investigate water at both poles of the Moon, further strengthening evidence found by Chandrayaan-2 that there exists water at one pole (South Pole). The Lunar Exploration Rover will conduct various experiments as well as carrying a symbolic Indian Flag as part of its commitment to interplanetary exploration. India will use this mission to search for signs of life on the Moon as well as study its composition and temperature to help provide clues as to its potential habitability. Furthermore, new technologies including thermal protection systems will be tested out as preparation for eventual human flights to Mars or beyond – helping India compete with NASA and Russia in developing technologies necessary for human space travel.