India’s chip hopes

THERE are some glad tidings for India in the fiercely competitive chip sector. The Semiconductor Lab of ISRO has developed the country’s first fully indigenous 32-bit microprocessor. The first ‘Made in India’ chip is set to be rolled out from the pilot facility at Sanand (Gujarat), even as 10 semiconductor projects, involving a total investment of over $18 billion, are underway — including one in Punjab’s Mohali. India is keen to become a major global player in this field, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hopeful that “the day is not far when India’s smallest chip will drive the world’s biggest change”.

It won’t be a cakewalk, however, to go the distance. The global semiconductor industry is valued at over $600 billion, of which India’s share is estimated to be just $45-50 billion. The sector is dominated by countries such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, China and the US. Taiwan alone produces more than 60 per cent of the world’s semiconductors, including nearly 90 per cent of the most advanced ones. The race for the second spot has intensified in the post-Covid years. It will require sustained investment, research & development, and manufacturing for India to become a chip giant.

Japan, which hosted PM Modi last week, can play a key role in raising India’s stature in the global semiconductor design ecosystem. It is heartening that Japanese investments in chip-related projects in India are on the rise. Improving ease of doing business is the need of the hour. Another challenge for India is to reduce its heavy dependence on semiconductor imports from China and firm up its own resilient supply chain. That won’t be easy amid Beijing’s eagerness to boost trade ties with Delhi. India needs to build on the gains — around 20 per cent of the world’s chip design engineers are based in this country — to go up the semiconductor ladder.

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