India's semiconductor industry has potential to grow to USD 40 billion by 2030: IESA

With the existing framework, India's semiconductor industry can grow to USD 10 billion by 2030, according to the report.

The Indian semiconductor industry can grow to USD 40 billion by 2030 by promoting the ecosystem around the supply chain, including chemicals and gases involved in the making of electronic chips, a senior official of industry body IESA said on Friday.

Speaking at the IESA Vision Summit, India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) President Ashok Chandak said India needs to learn from the global centers of semiconductors as it is a very complex technology.

"Any chip making touches at least more than 10 countries. It is very complicated. If we have to make semiconductor manufacturing successful in India, we have to take care of the supply chain that includes gases, the chemicals, materials, and most of the supply chain has to happen with the plants that are going to manufacture semiconductors," Chandak said.

He said that in 2022, IESA had released a report on the groundwork that needs to be done for the semiconductor ecosystem, and it has now released a report that details out all the manufacturing cases for India.

"Overall, we estimate that the supply chain-related market worldwide is going to increase to USD 420 billion by 2030, and if we aspire about a 10 per cent share, that means we are looking at a possible opportunity of USD 40 billion. This could happen through some of the global companies moving their base to India to make for India and also for exporting," Chandak said.

With the existing framework, India's semiconductor industry can grow to USD 10 billion by 2030, according to the report.

The IESA report on the semiconductor supply chain said India will require approximately 1.5 million skilled workers and 5 million semi-skilled workers across the value chain by 2026-2027. The report expects high demand for workforce in roles like processing, equipment engineering, IC testing engineering, and capacity planning management.

Over the next two to five years, numerous job opportunities in design, manufacturing, training, supply chain management, chemical and materials engineering, packaging, testing, and logistics are anticipated, the report said.

Chandak said the interest of global stakeholders in India is growing, which was reflected at the 19th IESA Vision Summit held here. He said that over 30 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were signed at the IESA Vision Summit, including Tata Electronics' agreements with PSMC and Himax, among others.

"Semiconductor is a very niche industry but also a pillar for the digital revolution. We had over 2,400 registrations for the event. During the inaugural session, over 1,750 people were present. We have seen more than 250 international leaders, in addition to their Indian counterparts, joining this, which reflects upon the interest of global firms in India," he said.