India is laying out a red carpet for the semiconductor industry, says PM Modi

The Semicon India roadshow comes at a time when India is trying to attract major semiconductor players to set up chip fabrication and assembling plants in the country with a $10-billion subsidy programme.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on July 28 that India is laying out a red carpet for the semiconductor industry and that policy reforms are being undertaken at a fast pace to help the sector come up in the country. "India is ticking every checkbox of becoming a very good partner to the semiconductor industry. We laying out a red carpet for the semiconductor industry. India is becoming a great conductor for the semiconductor industry," he said at the Semicon India 2023 roadshow in Gandhinagar on Friday.

"We have identified more than 300 colleges where semiconductor courses will be available. In the next 5 years, we will have more than 1 lakh Semicon design engineers," he added.

The Semicon India roadshow comes at a time when India is trying to attract major semiconductor players to set up chip fabrication and assembling plants in the country with a $10-billion subsidy programme. During Modi's visit to the US, semiconductor major Micron committed to setting up a $2.7-billion assembling plant in the country. According to estimates, the centre and the state government of Gujarat will cumulatively bear 70 percent of the cost of the project in the form of subsidies.

Meanwhile, semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials has said it would invest $400 million to design chipmaking machinery in the country.

However, the government has yet been unable to attract any major foreign foundry to the country at a time when advanced economies such as the US, Germany, the European Union, and Japan have announced large subsidy programmes in a global race to corner the semiconductor pie.