India Needs Strategic Autonomy in IP/Products: EPIC Foundation

New Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI) India should move urgently to secure strategic autonomy by building its own IP/products, and create a clear preference for Indian trusted chips for government purchases, in light of new geopolitics and an increasingly "unipolar world", according to Ajai Chowdhry, Founder HCL and Chairman of EPIC Foundation.

India has already made significant strides with the development of RISC-V chip technology at IIT-Madras, eliminating the need to pay license fees, he noted.

"Building on this, we should focus on designing our own chips using RISC-V to safeguard against future sanctions," Chowdhry said in a statement.

India, he said, must create a clear preference for Indian trusted chips for government purchases to help create the market and make startups and others successful.

"We suggested (to) the government to prioritise high-quality chips for the nation and provided a list of 30 chips and 30 priority products that should be developed and manufactured in India. The country's fabless and product industries will both benefit from this," he said.

The EPIC Foundation has batted for allocating Rs 44,000 crore to the 'Product Nation', with Rs 15,000 crore going toward system products and Rs 11,000 crore for semiconductor products.

"The balance is for additional incentives and acquisitions. The most critical ones that are needed to be done in the budget are at least the semiconductor products so that we become self-sufficient over a short period of time because that's the demand of the new unipolar world," he said.

In light of the new geopolitics, India must leverage its strengths in chip design and its large home market to become a critical part of the global value chain, he added.