Chandan Raj, the founder and CEO of Bihar’s first semiconductor company called Suresh Chips and Semiconductor Pvt Ltd, wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that it was the “worst decision” of his life to start a company in Bihar.
Calling Bihar “the land of disappointment”, Raj wrote that there are “lots of problems and struggle to survive here as a semiconductor/VLSI company”.
Very large scale integration (VLSI) refers to the process of creating an integrated circuit by combining millions or in some cases billions of metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors into a single chip.
Who is Chandan Raj?
The founder of the semiconductor startup graduated in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in electronics and telecommunications from Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) in Odisha, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He then went on to work in engineering and management positions at various technology companies, including Samsung Electronics, Intel in Malaysia and Israel, Silicon Service SRL in Romania, and Nokia Bell Labs and NXP, both in Shanghai, after which he worked remotely as a consultant to AMD .
He then set up Suresh Chips and Semiconductor in Muzaffarpur, Bihar in December 2020.
What were the problems that Chandan Raj faced when it came to running a semiconductor company in Bihar?
Raj writes that he has lost customers who refused to work with his company due to the lack of infrastructure in the area. He said he has been waiting for the last four years for a road and infrastructure but no help from anyone.
“I don’t think the Bihar government understands the semiconductor industry,” he wrote.
He also added that the police would not help “when a local gangster threatens us”.
In response to an X user who asked him to write things in detail so that the authorities of the concern could find a way out, Raj replied that he had “sent many official emails and handwritten applications and went to almost every bureaucrat and politician’s office for basic infrastructure like road and street lighting” and lamented “It is useless to discuss the truth about Bihar. Nothing will change here.”
However, things may soon be looking up for Chandan Raj. The official X account of the District Magistrate of Muzaffarpur responded to his post saying that administrative approval has already been given for the construction of the road and that it will start immediately after Dussehra.
