India can now build the machines that build the machines. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Sunday that the country has manufactured indigenous five-axis precision CNC machines capable of an accuracy of two microns, a milestone that takes Indian manufacturing a clear step beyond assembly and into high-precision engineering.
Vaishnaw shared the news in a post on X after a visit to the Ethereal Machines facility in Bengaluru, a deep-tech company that designs and operates advanced CNC machines and makes high-precision components for critical applications. He took a swipe at critics who have dismissed Indian manufacturing as mere assembly work.
“For those calling our manufacturing as screwdriver technology: Designed in India, Made in India 5-axes precision CNC machines with the accuracy of 2 microns!” he wrote.
What exactly was announced
A CNC, or computer numerical control, machine cuts, drills and shapes metal and other materials with computer-guided precision. A five-axis machine works across five directions of movement at once: the usual X, Y and Z axes, plus two rotational movements. That extra freedom lets manufacturers shape complex parts in a single setup, with far greater accuracy than a standard three-axis machine can manage.
The headline number here is two microns. A micron is one-thousandth of a millimetre, and two microns is roughly forty times finer than the thickness of a human hair, which is about 80 microns. At that level of precision, a machine can produce parts for semiconductor equipment, aerospace components, medical devices and other applications where even a tiny error can ruin a component.
Vaishnaw underlined the point in his own words during the visit, saying India was now “manufacturing things that go into things that go into things”, a reference to how deep the country’s industrial capability is now reaching.
Why this matters more than a single machine
The real story is not one machine in one Bengaluru facility. It is about where the machine sits in the supply chain. Until now, much of India’s electronics story has been about assembling finished products: phones, laptops and appliances put together from imported parts. The government has been pushing to move deeper, into the components, materials and equipment that make those products possible.
Precision machines are the foundation layer of that ambition. Chip-making equipment, for instance, cannot be built without machines that can cut parts to micron-level tolerances. The same applies to aerospace parts, defence systems and advanced medical equipment. A country that can build its own precision machines is less dependent on foreign suppliers for the tools of its own industry, and better placed to support a domestic semiconductor ecosystem.
That is why Vaishnaw framed the development as part of a wider shift. “This is the way electronics and semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem is taking shape,” he said, pointing to a gradual expansion from assembly towards specialised machinery and precision engineering.
The Bengaluru connection
Ethereal Machines, the company at the centre of the announcement, works in exactly this space. The Bengaluru firm designs, develops and operates advanced CNC machines and manufactures high-precision industrial components for critical applications across several sectors.
The minister’s visit to the facility, and his decision to highlight its work publicly, signals that the government sees such deep-tech manufacturers as central to its self-reliance goals in electronics and semiconductors. The focus, officials have said, is increasingly on building the machinery, components and specialised equipment needed at every stage of manufacturing, rather than only on the finished goods that roll off assembly lines.
What happens next
The announcement is a capability milestone rather than a product launch, and the next test will be scale. Precision machines matter most when they are produced in numbers, adopted by manufacturers across sectors, and supported by trained operators and maintenance networks.
For now, though, the message from the government is clear: India’s manufacturing ambitions no longer stop at assembly. The country is building the tools, the components and the machines behind the machines, and two microns of accuracy is the latest proof of how far that work has come.
FAQs
What is a five-axis CNC machine?
It is a computer-controlled machine that shapes metal and other materials by moving a cutting tool across five axes at once: the X, Y and Z directions plus two rotational movements. This lets it machine complex parts with very high precision in a single setup.
How accurate are India’s new indigenous CNC machines?
They can achieve an accuracy of two microns, or two-thousandths of a millimetre. For comparison, a human hair is about 80 microns thick.
Who announced the development?
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who holds the Electronics and Information Technology portfolio, announced it on Sunday during a visit to the Ethereal Machines facility in Bengaluru.
Why are precision CNC machines important for semiconductors?
Chip-making equipment and other advanced products need parts machined to extremely tight tolerances. Building such machines at home reduces dependence on foreign suppliers and supports a deeper domestic electronics and semiconductor ecosystem.
What is Ethereal Machines?
It is a Bengaluru-based deep-tech manufacturing company that designs and operates advanced CNC machines and produces high-precision industrial components for critical applications.
India’s precision manufacturing story is moving from promise to proof, one micron at a time.
