Can India become a chip superpower?

At the Dataquest Digital Leadership Conclave, Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, Meity & CEO, NeGD/DIC, and Sanjay Gupta, Chairman, Indian Electronics & Semiconductors Association, were in conversation with Anand Ramamoorthy, MD, Micron India. The topic was: Can India become a chip superpower?

Anand Ramamoorthy, Micron, said the India Semiconductor Mission is now off to a great start. Abhishek Singh, Meity, said that it shows the commitment of the government. Semiconductors are a huge part of our lives. Some companies and countries also have monopolies. We need to address the supply chain holistically. We are in a long-term game. We are looking at talent. Leading Indian design engineers are available in India. We are also looking at a fab. This will aspire us to lower nodes. We are also focused on the OSATs. More such companies will get established in the years ahead. We only have to look up from where we are currently. Micron has trusted in India. We have a domestic market, and have potential for dominating the global market.

Semiconductor ecosystem
Sanjay Gupta, IESA, said we have three milestones happening in India. India's decade or century are around the corner. The investments happening are huge. Semiconductor ecosystem is found on four pillars. India has been leading on chip design, which is our core strength. It will be flooded with Indian companies in the future. Next comes semiconductor manufacturing and testing. We also have electronic manufacturing. A decade from now, India will become a semiconductor superpower.

We are now growing the Indian consumption story. Abhishek Singh, Meity, said there is demand for semiconductors from all sectors. Adoption in India is currently much lower, than in the other countries. We need to have more adoption of technology across the country. We are already seeing adoption in healthcare. In automotive, per capita car consumption is also much lower. There will be huge demand for semiconductor chips in future. In education, we will see more adoption to the new technologies. Manufacturing, especially, traditional manufacturing, modern steps are being adopted. Demand will far outgrow the supply. Micron will have the first tool out of its facility in India by early 2025. We need to get going, and get the tenders out as soon as possible.

Sanjay Gupta, IESA, added that the demand side is also thriving. We will see exports over the next 10 years. Tier-1 product companies are already importing chips, with high excise. Once we localize the chip, we can give a run for the money. We also need to have a big consumer brand in the country. It will generate Make in India brands. 

What about R&D?
Ramamoorthy said India's R&D spend is still very low. How do we shift that needle up? Abhishek Singh, Meity, said we need to focus on R&D. TSMC, ASML, etc., have always invested a lot in R&D. Traditional manufacturers look at tax on resources. We have several missions, such as semiconductors, quantum, etc. We also had lack of opportunity in cutting-edge research. Now, with opportunties getting created, we can see some change. We will be able to compete with the best research institutions globally.
 
Sanjay Gupta, IESA, added that more high-quality R&D work is going on. India is known for highest number of engineers. However, they do not necessarily get better jobs. We are also training some of them. Getting them exposure will make them industry-ready. Demand will always be there. We also created a fabless ecosystem. The industry needs to provide direction regarding products that they need to make. It is a small beginning, and has to now become a mass movement. We also need to have mandatory investment into incubators. 

Abhishek Singh, Meity, added that design-led incentives schemes are also necessary. Doing a startup is very difficult. Gupta noted that doing a startup is a very cool thing.