India will develop its own semiconductor production industry, with the aim of reducing its dependence on China and Taiwan, after the shortages experienced during the Covid crisis. These electronic chips are essential to build laptops or computers, but also cars. Their production was until then concentrated in China and Taiwan. The Indian government has launched an aid plan of nearly 10 billion euros.
>> Shortage of semiconductors: what are France’s strengths in this global industrial battle?
The first contracts were signed for the construction of factories. The biggest has just been announced: the Indian mining company Vedanta has teamed up with the Taiwanese Foxconn, which specializes in electronics. And this joint venture plans to invest around 20 billion euros to produce some of the first Indian semiconductors, in the state of Gujarat, in the northwest of the country. Two other foreign companies plan to open similar factories in the south of the country, and each time the companies sign agreements with the regional authorities.
This high-tech industry needs to ensure that it will have continuous electricity and quality water. This remains a problem in some Indian industrial areas. The authorities claim to be able to provide them, which reassures investors.
Eventually, India wants to be able to produce electronic components for telephones or other electronic products sold in India, but also export them, in order to offer an alternative to China. But getting there will also require investing in innovation, says Mayank Shrivastava, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science and co-founder of Agnit Semi-conductors: “Today the question is who produces. But tomorrow it will be who has access to advanced technology, such as silicon-free semiconductors.”
“If India wants to stay in the race, it must develop its own patents, otherwise the foreigners who invent this technology will not give us access to it and we will no longer be able to produce modern objects”
Mayank Shrivastava, co-founder of Agnit Semiconductorsat franceinfo
Another challenge is manpower. Each factory requires close to a thousand highly skilled engineers. India must strengthen its technological sectors to avoid a shortage in this field.