Hope to approve two high-quality semiconductor chip fabrication proposals in 12 months: Ashwini Vaishnaw

India’s semiconductor policy has taken care of talent and design capabilities to ensure that it stays ahead of the chip-making plans other countries have drawn up, union minister for electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said. In an interview with Aashish Aryan on the sidelines of the Semicon India 2023 conference in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, he said the India Semiconductor Mission will ensure that companies willing to set up shop in India do so as a natural business decision, not just on geopolitical and supply chain considerations. Edited Excerpts:

How soon can we expect a chip manufacturing plant to be approved?

We can say that in the coming 12 months we should be able to approve two high-quality semiconductor chip fabrication proposals.India today is a very, very interesting geography. The transparency, including getting experts to run the India Semiconductor Mission, neutralised any negative impact that could have been on our relations with other countries. We are trying to create an environment where companies should feel naturally that they should come to India and not just because of geopolitical or supply chain considerations.

Also read | Vedanta to roll out first made-in-India chips within 2.5 years: group chairman Anil Agarwal

What will set India apart from others who failed in their attempts to build a semiconductor ecosystem?

The advice we got from the industry was that many countries could not really grow beyond a point because they never focused on talent or design capabilities. That is why, right from day one in the programme, we have design as a major part. This is what really differentiates our policy from other countries’ policies.

How will the semiconductor industry spawn growth of other industries in the country?

Practically every component that we use today has semiconductors, from household refrigerators to appliances in the kitchen, the television and vehicles. So, once we have the mother industry which is semiconductor manufacturing here, it will have a series of other supporting industries which will develop around it.

So, like the electronics manufacturing industry will grow to $300 billion in the coming five years, within a few years of the production-linked incentive schemes being announced, there will be similar growth here. For example, when Micron comes, they already have very strong relationships with their supplier companies across the world. They are present in eight or nine countries and have multiple well-established fabs there. We have to make sure that the mother plant comes. They bring lots of associated companies with them. For the peripheral industries, we have schemes such as the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) and the Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SEPCS). The Applied Materials project got approved under these schemes, which are outside the semiconductor programme.

Does Semicon become a kind of event in the future where companies come and sign pacts or make announcements of the kind that AMD did?

AMD is a very capable, very high-quality company. Their design capabilities are amazing, and we are really thankful to AMD that they have announced the investment today (of $400 million). We will work with them to make sure the proposal is executed at a very fast pace.

The purpose of Semicon is threefold. The first is to have interactions between various semiconductor industry participants where they exchange thoughts, ideas and the latest developments. The second purpose is to give exposure to our students to where the semiconductor industry is headed. The third is to showcase India’s capabilities to the world. The investment decisions will keep happening throughout the year. But Semicon’s purpose is to showcase our talent and to make sure that the industry participants get a platform.

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