Daybreak

Assam's tech dreams run on water that drowns it every year

July 29 · 12 min · Episode 804 · 11.8 MB
0:00-12:16

Streams straight from the publisher. podnod never proxies or re-hosts episode audio.

Assam is enduring some of its worst flooding in years, with the death toll inching to a hundred and lakhs affected. It is also happens to be the state that recently landed India's first chip assembly plant, a ₹27,000 crore Tata facility, and the centrepiece of Japan's growing push into the Northeast. The plant itself is light on water.

But the deeper ecosystem Assam is chasing, chemicals and the rest of the chip supply chain, is thirsty, and the state is highlighting its abundant water as the draw.

The trouble is those same rivers flood it almost every year and despite rising spending, Assam still goes under.

Tune in.

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.