NEW DELHI: India is 12 generations behind in chip manufacturing because of the previous government’s lack of political vision and strategic clarity, said Meity Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Thursday.
While speaking to reporters a day ahead of India’s second edition of the Semicon India Conference, the minister said that it has been only 19 months since the country set the ball rolling in the semiconductor ecosystem.
“There was a lack of political vision, strategies and incompetency for decades. This has held India back from semiconductors. Today, we can achieve in the coming decade what some neighbouring countries took 30 years and over $200 billion to achieve,” said Chandrasekhar.
India has aggressively pushed itself to become a semiconductor manufacturing hub since December 2021 when it announced a $10 billion incentive for companies to establish their chip-making industry in the country. Recently, the government approved the application of US-based Micron for packaging. The company plans to invest $2.75 billion, and it is expected to create at least 5,000 new direct jobs and 15,000 community jobs. Other applicants, like Vedanta, are waiting for approval from the government for a semiconductor fab unit in the country.
“We were almost nothing in 2014 in the semiconductor ecosystem and today we are increasingly becoming a big presence in the global value chain for electronics,” he said. While highlighting the missed opportunities since the 1960s, the minister recalled that India has repeatedly missed out on opportunities in the electronics and semiconductor sectors. He mentioned that Fairchild semiconductors, which served as the precursor to Intel, came to India in 1957 for a packaging unit, but unfortunately, India couldn’t retain them, and the packaging unit eventually became Asia’s largest packaging hub in Malaysia.
The minister further noted that India had established a fab for silicon and germanium transistors, but it had to shut down. Additionally, India’s major VLSI facility, the Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL), faced a major setback when a mysterious fire in 1989 halted production until 1997.
“In 1987, India was just two years behind the latest chip manufacturing technology. Today, we are 12 generations behind – this is how far behind we are as a nation in the field of semiconductors,” said the minister.
Chip manufacturing mission
Recently, govt approved the application of US-based Micron for packaging.