India should be next destination for semiconductor industry

India has to be next big destination for semiconductor industry, which is set to double to $1 trillion plus, as the country was developing a comprehensive ecosystem combined with the right talent pool, said communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, during his three-day visit to San Francisco, US.

“India is the most cost-effective country. It is the only place with talent. So the next big destination has to be India. India’s approach of developing comprehensive ecosystem is absolutely the right thing,” he said. He added that industry leaders appreciated the policy actions taken by the government so far, referring to the $10 billion financial incentive scheme for setting up semiconductor fabs in India and allied schemes aimed to building the chip manufacturing ecosystem including testing and packaging facilities in the country.

On Wednesday, Vaishnaw met with Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai at the Google headquarters and held discussions on Make in India and the India stack. He also visited the Applied Materials semiconductor plant, and is slated to meet top bosses of HP, Intel, Western Digital, Micron, and AMD, among others, as he seeks to invite companies to invest and set up manufacturing in India.

On Wednesday, India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) and Purdue University, US signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for cooperation in capacity building, research and development, and industry participation.

Vaishnaw’s visit comes two months after the US and India signed a MoU on semiconductor supply chain and innovation partnership. The partnership aims to increasec private sector cooperation in the area of semiconductors, at a time when India is attempting to become a big player in chip ecosystem on the back of its large, open market and skilled workforce amid geopolitical shifts that are pushing countries to look at alternative supplies chains to China. Livemint