PM: India eyeing a key role in semiconductor supply chain
BENGALURU: India is headed for a robust economy and the country’s consumption of semiconductors is expected to cross $110 billion by 2030, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday, while listing out six key reasons why India is the next big destination for semiconductor technology.
He pointed out that the country was building a digital infrastructure to connect over 1.3 billion citizens, bring 600,000 villages into the broadband net, and investing heavily in upgrading skills and boosting manufacturing.
During his virtual address at the inaugural session of the Semicon India-2022 conference, Modi called upon industry to establish India as one of the key partners in the global semiconductor supply chains and work in this direction based on the principle of “hi-tech, high quality, and high reliability”.
“It is our collective aim to establish India as one of the key partners in global semiconductor supply chains,” he said. “India’s own
consumption of semiconductors is expected to cross $80 billion by 2026 and $110 billion by 2030.”
The Centre’s Semicon India Programme, set up to build the semiconductor and display ecosystem in the country, has generated interest among companies with proposals of over ₹1.53 lakh crore received in the first round which closed on February 15. Five proposals for semiconductor and display fabs were received with total
investment nearing $20.5 billion or ₹153,750 crore, the ministry of electronics and information technology said in a statement.
India approved a semiconductor policy in December to incentivise a domestic ecosystem for semiconductors and display manufacturing — in line with the Centres ambition to create a $300 billion electronics industry in six years.
Outlining six reasons for India to become an attractive investment destination for semiconductor technologies, Modi said: “We are building digital infrastructure to connect over 1.3 billion Indians and UPI is world’s most efficient payment infrastructure today.”
Second, India is paving the way for the country to lead the next “technology revolution”, Modi said. Efforts are underway to try and connect 600,000 villages with broadband and also invest in developing capabilities in 5G, clean energy technologies and internet of things (IoT), he added.
The Prime Minister also said that India is headed for robust economic growth with the world’s fastest-growing startup ecosystem.
Fourth, India has undertaken wide-ranging reforms for improving the ease of doing business in the country. Modi also noted that various reform measures taken by the government, such as the abolition of more than 25,000 compliances, a push towards auto-renewal of licenses, transparency and speed in regulatory framework via digitisation, and one of the most favourable taxation structures in the world.
He underlined that the country is investing heavily in skilling and training young Indians for the needs of the 21st century. “We have an exceptional semiconductor design talent pool which makes up to 20% of the world’s semiconductor design engineers… Almost all of the top 25 semiconductor design companies have their design or Research and Development centers in our country…,” he said.
Lastly, he said the government has undertaken several measures towards transforming the Indian manufacturing sector. “At a time when humanity was fighting a once in a century pandemic, India was not only improving the health of our people but also the health of our economy,” he said.
“It (semiconductor industry) is huge and so the government is willing to invest ₹70,000 crore to get this started… We import electronic hardware worth $400 bn which is above our oil imports. So, there is a need to have our own domestic semiconductor industry,” S Gopalakrishnan (Kris), Infosys co-founder and technology investor with Axilor, told HT.