Chennai (PTI): Aiming to extend strong support to the opposition bloc INDIA in taking on the BJP, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday said he would address the nation through a podcast series 'Speaking for India'.

Stating that he was compelled to speak for India, the Chief Minister, who is the president of DMK, said the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will mark the end of the BJP rule in the country. The DMK is a constituent of the INDIA grouping.

"Recently, I started a question and answer session: Ungalil Oruvan (one among you) to share my views. The DMK is turning 75 years and is the third major party in the Parliament. It was nurtured by iconic leaders like (former Chief Ministers) C N Annadurai and M Karunanidhi, who created a deep impact," Stalin said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, with the captions: "Awakening India's tomorrow, A Southern Voice Speaks for India".

"We are forced to speak for India. I am going to speak through an audio series about how the BJP regime, which will end in 2024, is destroying India and how we want to build an egalitarian and fraternal India in the future," he said.

"Shall we name it as Speaking for India? Wait for this voice from the south!" he said in the video.

The video comes on the day that the parties, who are a part of the opposition alliance, will be holding a meeting in Mumbai to discuss INDIA's strategy to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections due next year and inclusion of new allies.

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Wilmington (PTI): Under a transformative collaboration with the US, India will get a national security semiconductor fabrication plant that will produce chips for use in military hardware and next-generation telecommunications.

The India-US joint project was announced following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Wilmington on Saturday.

A joint fact sheet on Modi-Biden talks said the two leaders "hailed" the semiconductor project as a "watershed arrangement".

It will be the first ever India-US semiconductor fabrication partnership.

It is the first time ever the US military has agreed to do a partnership for these highly-value technologies with India and it is a watershed moment as it is as significant as the civil nuclear deal, people familiar with the matter said.

"President Biden and Prime Minister Modi hailed a watershed arrangement to establish a new semiconductor fabrication plant focused on advanced sensing, communication, and power electronics for national security, next-generation telecommunications, and green energy applications," the fact sheet noted.

It said the "fab, which will be established with the objective of manufacturing infrared, gallium nitride and silicon carbide semiconductors, will be enabled by support from the India semiconductor mission as well as a strategic technology partnership between Bharat Semi, 3rdiTech, and the US Space Force."

The Fab becomes not only India’s first, but one of the world's first multi-material fabs for national security, the people cited above said.

The fact sheet said Modi and Biden praised combined efforts to facilitate resilient, secure, and sustainable semiconductor supply chains including through GlobalFoundries' (GF) creation of the GF Kolkata Power Center in Kolkata.

It said the project will enhance mutually beneficial linkages in research and development in chip manufacturing.

"The leaders welcomed steps our industry is taking to build safe, secure, and resilient supply chains for US, Indian, and international automotive markets, including through Ford Motor Company's submission of a Letter of Intent to utilize its Chennai plant to manufacture for export to global markets," the document said.

It said Modi and Biden commended ongoing efforts to build more expansive cooperation around 5G deployment and next-generation telecommunications.

This includes the US Agency for International Development's plans to expand the Asia Open RAN Academy with an initial USD 7 million investment to grow this workforce training initiative worldwide, including in South Asia with Indian institutions.