NEW DELHI: Telecom minister Ashwani Vaishnaw on Monday said the entire semiconductor industry in the world wants to come to India because of the availability of talent in the country and the steps the government is taking to improve its talent base.
The minister, while speaking on the sidelines of Sanchar Sathi portal launch, said the world now considers that India can become the next semiconductor hub in the world. “The semiconductor industry will become a $1 trillion industry by 2030, and then it would require a 1 million talent pool,” said the minister.
Vaishnaw said the country has many advantages that give it an edge over its competitors. The country has a large talent pool and it has already earmarked 20,000 megawatts of green energy for semiconductor manufacturing.
He asserted that in the next five to 10 years, India will emerge as a major semiconductor destination for companies. The minister was recently on a trip to the US, where he met nearly 45 companies in three days. The government also signed a MoU with Purdue University for a joint programme, joint research and online course for semiconductor industry. Under the Semicon India programme that aims to train 85,000 semiconductor engineers in the country, the minister said by now it already has about 106 universities, which are running semiconductor programmes.
On the question of not being able to convince the big semiconductor companies to invest in India, the minister said it is not a short-term programme, it would take about 20 years to create a proper ecosystem. He said the government is not rushing through everything but is trying to create a proper ecosystem.
On regulating AI, he said the possible threats posed by artificial intelligence (AI) and creating a regulatory framework is an issue of global significance, not limited to only one country. He said this has to be looked at from an international perspective. “As we come up with the idea about the framework, we will keep sharing it.”