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 frustration,” 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 onto a single chip.
Who is Chandan Raj?
The founder of the semiconductor startup graduated in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Telecommunication from Odisha’s Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT), according to his LinkedIn profile.
He then went on to work in engineering and managerial roles across a variety of tech 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 for AMD.
He then set up Suresh Chips and Semiconductor in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, in December 2020.
What were the issues faced by Chandan Raj when it came to running a semiconductor company in Bihar?
Raj wrote that he lost clients who refused to work with his company due to the lacking infrastructure in the area. He said that he had been waiting for the last four years for road and infrastructure, but with no help from anyone.
“I think the Bihar government does not understand the semiconductor industries,” he wrote.
He also added that the police would not help “when a local gangster threatens us.”
Responding to an X user who asked him to write things in detail, so the concern authorities can find a way out, Raj replied that he had “sent many official emails and handwritten applications and went to almost every bureaucrat and politician office for basic infrastructure like road and street light,” and lamented “It’s 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 Muzaffarpur’s District Magistrate replied to his post, telling that administrative approval had already been given for constructing the road and that it would start immediately after Dussehra.