The India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) and the US Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) have announced plans to develop a private-sector task force to strengthen collaboration between both countries in the global semiconductor ecosystem, just ahead of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presenting the Union Budget 2023.
While the US and China investing billions of dollars to top the chip game, India has joined the same battle with the Semiconductor Mission, aiming to build a vibrant semiconductor and display ecosystem to enable the country’s emergence as a global hub for electronics manufacturing and design. The government had also launched the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme in 2021 with an aim to make India the chip hub.
However, now the collaboration between US and Indian semiconductor groups may help the ecosystem to grow further.
As per the groups, the private-sector task force will have some goals to achieve. These are developing a “readiness assessment” regarding the semiconductor ecosystem in India; assembling industry, government, and academic stakeholders to identify near-term industry opportunities and facilitate the longer-term strategic development of complementary semiconductor ecosystems; making recommendations on opportunities and challenges to increase India’s role within the global semiconductor value chain, including chip manufacturing; and identifying and facilitating workforce development and exchange opportunities to benefit both countries.
About the new collaboration, IESA president and CEO Krishna Moorthy said: “It will be an important platform to bring together global resources to identify actionable plans to support India to increase its presence in the worldwide chip industry and then enable global collaboration to execute the plans across all segments of the design and manufacturing supply chain, as well as creating semiconductor talent for the world.”
SIA president and CEO John Neuffer said India is already a major hub for semiconductor research, chip design and equipment engineering, but the future potential of the country is greater than what is seen.
“This task force will help identify tangible ways to unlock this potential by increasing collaboration between the US and India within the global chip ecosystem,” he added.
Several companies are attempting to turn India into a centre for semiconductor manufacturing, according to the Economic Survey 2023 document, which was submitted on January 31. This has improved the outlook for investment in this industry.
The International Semiconductor Consortium, based in Israel, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to spend Rs 22,900 crore in Karnataka to build the country’s first chip-manufacturing facility.
Additionally, Tata Group and Vedanta, both indigenous companies, have shown interest in the chip business. The latter in collaboration with Foxconn is planning to establish a chip facility in Gujrat that could begin the operation in two-and-a-half years.
The survey stated: “While these are early stages, global and domestic players have evinced interest based on the prospects for the semiconductor industry in India and the fiscal incentives provided.”
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