Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called on India to aspire to become an early leader in emerging technologies, while assuring the semiconductor industry of a predictable and responsive policy environment.
Chairing a roundtable with leading semiconductor industry CEOs, Modi stressed the need for closer government-industry collaboration to shape India's technology future, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office.
The prime minister highlighted India's strengths in talent, technology adoption and infrastructure and urged industry leaders to play a greater role in skilling, innovation and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing.
Modi said India had made significant progress in building its semiconductor ecosystem, which was now moving from foundational efforts to a phase of greater scale and opportunity.
He reiterated the government's commitment to maintaining a predictable and responsive policy environment, while noting that policies must evolve in line with technological advancements and industry requirements.
The prime minister also invited industry leaders to offer suggestions on policy and administrative measures and assured them that their inputs would be considered while further strengthening the sector.
Modi urged the CEOs to actively participate in the next phase of India's semiconductor growth.
The industry representatives welcomed the government's efforts to develop India's semiconductor capabilities and highlighted progress in manufacturing, design, infrastructure and talent development.
They expressed confidence in opportunities under the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0 and India's potential to develop capabilities across the semiconductor value chain, including manufacturing, research and development, advanced technologies and supporting industries.
Referring to the government's target of training one crore people in AI, Modi said India's talent pool, combined with the experience and capabilities of global industry leaders, could create significant opportunities.
The CEOs also appreciated Modi's leadership and support, saying the progress made in recent years had created a strong foundation for greater industry participation. They expressed their commitment to contributing to India's emergence as a globally competitive semiconductor and technology hub.
The meeting was attended by CEOs, heads and representatives of organisations including SEMI, Micron, Infineon, Applied Materials, ASML, Merck, Tokyo Electron Limited, FujiFilm, AMD, Intel, Tata Electronics, Lam Research, Rapidus, NXP, Foxconn, Semi Conductor Devices, Advantest, Celesta Capital, CG Power and IBM Research.
(With inputs from PTI)
