Opinion
Mint Quick Edit | India’s fab dream: There’s hard work to do
Summary
- Modi has spoken of an India-made chip in every gadget while pitching for investment in this sector. Even as India’s chip prospects brighten, we mustn’t lose sight of the challenges that lie ahead.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that it is his dream to see an India-made chip in every global device. He also sought to attract global players by highlighting India’s stable business environment and chip investments already secured to fast-track the sector’s growth.
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“This is the right time to be in India. India offers an integrated ecosystem for the semiconductor sector, provides stable policies, and ease of doing business," he said.
While local chip rhetoric has been high ever since “computer chips, not potato chips" became a rallying cry in the 1990s for desired foreign direct investment, it’s only recently that prospects of India becoming a global chip supplier have brightened, thanks in part to the public money the government is putting into the effort.
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Self-sufficiency is another aim of this aspect of India’s industrial policy. Not just India, but other countries are also moving to acquire chip security as global geopolitics threatens to upend old market assumptions of availability.
It won’t be easy, however, for India to maximize its chip potential. It’s one thing for the government to promise a conducive business environment, but quite another to actually provide it.
