India-US Partnership In Semiconductors A Quantum Leap: MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar

The Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said India’s partnership with the US on semiconductors would be a quantum leap for India’s development in key technological areas.

Chandrasekhar said the India-US partnership announcement has areas including semiconductors, cybersecurity, high-performance computing and AI. He added that Indian startups will work with US startups to develop these technologies.

“The vision of India and the US is that these areas are critical emerging technologies that will shape the economies, products and services of the future. And that in these technologies, India and the US will partner across governments, startups, academia and researchers to create and shape the technologies of the future,” said Chandrasekhar.

Chandrasekhar was speaking at a press conference on Friday (June 23). He talked about the $2.75 Bn investment coming in from Micron Technology in India following PM Modi’s state visit to the United States, and significant investments in semiconductors from Applied Materials and Lam Research.

“The goal of our ministry is to do in 10 years what China has done in 30 years [with semiconductors],” said Chandrasekhar at the event.

Speaking more on Indian startups, Chandrasekhar said, “From the design world, a large number of startups have been created and funded in India, including five under the Semicon India Future Design Programme.” Incidentally, India has set aside INR 1,000 Cr to fund semiconductor design startups, as announced by MoS IT last November.

He added that India scaled its semiconductor ecosystem rapidly from zero in the last 18 months. The statement comes months after Chandrasekhar told Inc42 that India would have 50 semiconductor startups by the end of 2023.

Last December, the government approved the Semicon India programme, with an outlay of INR 76,000 Cr, to develop India’s semiconductor design and manufacturing ecosystem. MeitY also flagged off the second edition of the Semicon Future Design Roadshow in Bengaluru on February 24, 2023.

At the roadshow earlier this year, the minister announced the launch of the ChipIN Centre at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) Bengaluru, which will act as a one-stop centre to provide semiconductor design tools, fabrication access, virtual prototyping Hw Lab and access to fabless chip designers of the country.

Chandrasekhar also announced plans to launch the India AI datasets programme, the world’s largest datasets programme, to catalyse the intelligent computing, AI computing, and device and system design ecosystem.

Investments Worth $3 Bn+ Coming To India’s Semiconductor Industry

To recap, Micron, led by Indian-American Sanjay Mehrotra, will set up a DRAM (dynamic random access memory) and NAND assembly, testing, marketing and packaging (ATMP) facility in India, investing $2.75 Bn in the process.

Applied Materials will set up a semiconductor centre for commercialisation and innovation in India, investing $400 Mn in India over the next four years. Lam Research will establish a training programme, training up to 60,000 engineers.

The investments are expected to generate more than 20,000 direct and indirect jobs over the next four to five years, said Chandrasekhar.