New Delhi: India is marching towards its own semiconductor industry at a rapid pace and the country is already realizing the fruits of labor, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for IT states. He has touted it as “our national pride,” stating that it’s proof a tough industry such as chip-making can succeed “when the country works together for one thing.
On the other hand, the government has sanctioned 12 semiconductor units for investing into the sector to the tune of approximately $20 billion and three of them have already begun to manufacture chips commercially, Vaishnaw said. The three are Micron, which started production on Feb. 28, Kaynes, which started on March 31 and CG Power, which started on July 4.
These new chips won’t only be in phones and computers. The chips manufactured at the CG Semi plant in Sanand, Gujarat, will be applied in cars, scooters, various industrial machines and even exported to Japan, America and Europe, said Vaishnaw. Other officials have indicated these chips will also be used in electric vehicle applications, home appliances and equipment in the power sector.
The minister described semiconductors’ counterpart and its applications, revealing that they are used in virtually every aspect of life. The U.S. chip market is extremely important, and the chip industry goes into everything, he said: From cars, mobile phones, drones, aircraft, MRI machines, to the global electronics market, which is valued at about $4.3 trillion and rapidly expanding.
The government is not only preoccupied with establishing factories. In just four years, India has witnessed 12 chip units, 24 new deep-tech design startups, and some 70,000 young people trained in designing chips, Vaishnaw added. He also spoke about women from rural areas who have learnt to work on the chips in Malaysia, and are now part of India’s expanding chip workforce.
The country’s aim is to create a full-fledged chip ecosystem, from design to manufacture to packaging, so that India can use less imported chips in the future, officials said, adding that ‘more plants’ are under construction and new investments are on the horizon.
