Bengaluru-Mysuru Has Potential To Become India’s Semiconductor Hub: Amitabh Kant

Former NITI Aayog CEO and India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant believes that Karnataka’s Bengaluru-Mysuru belt offers the “best” ecosystem for semiconductor design and manufacturing in India. 

Speaking at the India Global Innovation Connect event in Bengaluru on Thursday (June 6), Kant said that the geographical belt offers steady supply of electricity and minerals, which makes it the most viable choice for establishing semiconductor fabrication plants. 

“In India, there is no place that has a better ecosystem (for semiconductor manufacturing) than the Bengaluru-Mysore belt of Karnataka. For this, you need minerals, water and a steady supply of electricity and the region has all this… As a result, the belt could potentially be the best place to drive both manufacturing and emerge as the design centre for the world,” added Kant. 

Noting that about 30-35% of India’s existing semiconductor design was already being done in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the former NITI Aayog CEO said that the region has the potential to design semiconductors for companies across the globe. 

Responding to a question about the proposed site for the country’s first quantum computing tech park, Kant said that there was “no better place” than Karnataka to establish a hub for the emerging technology.

Kant said that the big focus of the current union government over the course of next five years will be on skilling the youth in emerging areas of technology. 

“The big focus of the next five years of this present government will be entirely on skilling and apprenticeship. It will also be on creating new jobs in emerging areas and not merely on the information technology sector,” added Kant. 

He also said that there was a need for more upskilling startups to help train young engineers in areas of emerging technologies and areas of huge demand. 

“We need more engineers that can build a new wave of Indian startups. For that, we need at least 2 Mn developers that are well versed in emerging areas such as AI and data science. So, we need to reorient, restructure and realign the curriculum of engineering colleges with demands of today to meet the supply gap. And this needs to be done quickly,” added Kant. 

Speaking about the INR 1 Lakh Cr R&D fund announced in Budget 2024, India’s G20 Sherpa said that the corpus would start being operationalised in the next three to four months. 

His comments come at a time when GenAI has gripped the imagination of people and businesses globally. Powering this emerging technology has been semiconductors that are at the core of these functionalities. But, as a global dogfight erupts over the control of semiconductors, India is quietly looking to make a mark in this space. 

Be it the INR 76,000 Cr production-linked-incentive (PLI) scheme for semiconductor manufacturing or INR 6,000 Cr earmarked for India’s Quantum Computing Mission, the Centre is looking to piggyback on emerging technologies to fuel the next phase of innovation, further spur startup ecosystem and fuel the country’s product economy. 

On the back of these sops, the Tata Group recently announced setting up a semiconductor ATMP (a combination of assembly, testing, marking and packaging) unit worth INR 27K Cr in Assam. 

Meanwhile, the Vedanta Group is also building a chip foundry in Gujarat’s Dholera while SaaS giant Zoho recently unveiled its plans to launch a commercial semiconductor manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu. Last year, the US-headquartered Micron Technology also said it would build an INR 22K Cr semiconductor testing and packaging plant in Gujarat’s Sanand.

At the heart of all this is India’s burgeoning semiconductor market, which is expected to surge beyond the $150 Bn mark by 2030, as per Inc42.