India's Semiconductor Rise: MoS IT on Chip Plants & Global Ecosystem

New Delhi, Feb 29 (PTI) The announcements of the upcoming chip manufacturing units is a testament to India becoming a significant player in the global semiconductor ecosystem, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Thursday after the government approved three chip plants entailing an investment of Rs 1.26 lakh crore.

"After years of neglect and missed opportunities, India is finally utilizing the unique opportunity in the electronics and semiconductor ecosystem. Today India finds itself well-equipped with talent, electronic system design, future labs, manufacturing, and packaging capabilities.

"The announcements of the upcoming manufacturing units is a testament to India becoming a significant player in the global semiconductor ecosystem," the minister told PTI.

He said that India has a unique opportunity in electronics and semiconductors.

Global value chains (GVCs) are changing, digitization is creating new architectures of what you conventionally saw as architectures of computing, automotive, industrial, and telecom. All digital areas are undergoing a paradigm shift, he noted.

“If you look at what has happened in the last two years since we started talking about semiconductors in January 2022, the cumulative amount of investment proposals received is USD 26 billion, which is significant by any standard of global semiconductor ecosystem expansion,” the minister said.

Chandrashekhar added the government will also be announcing the Bharat Semiconductor Research Centre in the next few days. “The semiconductor ecosystem has been a series of missed opportunities in India for 75 years, but today, I think even critical and keen observers will also concede that India has made significant progress,” he added.

Commenting about the unapproved proposal from Israel-based Tower Semiconductor, he said, “The proposal from Tower Semiconductor is a slightly more complex proposal because it is a much larger FAB, involves a larger period of buildout, and is one of the few foundry-led investments that is coming to the country. It was not passed in the cabinet, but it is certainly a very important proposal and the government is examining it, and hopefully, it will get approved shortly”.

He said that the tailwinds today are helping India progress in semiconductors. “Our partnerships with the US, EU, Japan, and Korea are tailwinds for our ambitions in semiconductors. Other countries, which seem to be ahead of us, have headwinds, with all kinds of export controls and regimes of technology denial that are working against them. In the next decade, India will be ahead of time”.

Talking about the manufacturing capacity of the semiconductor plants and their consumer target, he said, “We are moving from import substitution to export-led. Almost everything, from chips to servers, will be manufactured in India, for India, and for the world.

Asked about whether and when will India achieve self-sufficiency, he said that self-sufficiency in technology is not going to be easy, but a coalition of like-minded countries with the same kind of open, democratic values and protection of intellectual property and rule of law, will certainly shape the future of technology.

Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chandrashekhar said, “We are able to move fast in this sector because we have clarity from the top, from the Prime Minister himself. He is very clear about what is to be achieved, and what outcomes are expected. The clarity of thought brings in investments from all around”.