NEW DELHI: In a bid to build a semiconductor ecosystem in the country, India on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with Japan to develop a semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem, research and talent. This is the second such partnership, earlier the government signed a similar MoU with the US in March 2023.
“India semiconductor missions are progressing at a very fast pace step by step. We are achieving new milestones. Today a very important milestone has been achieved,” said Minister of Electronic and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw.
The partnership comes after US-based semiconductor major Micron Technology announced plans to invest in a $2.7 billion assembling plant in the country. Also, companies like Vedanta Limited and Foxconn are exploring applying for semiconductor incentive schemes in the country.
The government announced a $10 billion crore PLI incentive in December 2021 to develop a semiconductor ecosystem in the country. Vaishnaw said the government had multiple rounds of discussions with the Japanese industry, the Japanese government and Japanese academia and then reached the decision.
“Rapidus, a Japan corp, will be playing a role in focusing on the full value chain, instead of what other countries are doing, which is emphasising only fabrication. With Japan, we usually have detailed discussions and once the agreement is signed, it goes on for years,” added the minister.
Japan’s Rapidus Corp. is established with the support of eight major Japanese companies including SoftBank, Sony, and Toyota. Japan is a leading player in the semiconductor industry, and some of its companies provide raw materials such as ingot, wafers, gases and more to even the world chip leaders such as Taiwan.