Never thought India would become an electronics manufacturing hub in my lifetime: Sunil Mittal

Semiconductors power everything in the world, and even in space. A critical component capable of bringing the world to a stop, the global chip shortage was a wake-up call for the largest economies to invest in the ecosystem. India announced the semiconductor scheme worth Rs 76,000 crore in December 2021, and soon after in August, the US approved a bill providing $52.7 billion in subsidies for US semiconductor manufacturers and research.

As these numbers give a glimpse of the importance of semiconductors, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, while speaking at Business Today’s India@100 Economy Summit, recalled India’s failed attempts and missed opportunities in the semiconductor space. Mittal said, “We had one semiconductor factory in Mohali SCL, which was the first factory that we had in this country. That unfortunately went down in flames. And no government after that, put it back to revival or to a program.” 

He also shared his experience about how India missed the opportunity of getting Intel to set up a fab in the country. “Intel came. This was, I think Greg Barrett's time, during Dr Manmohan Singh's time. I had long conversations, they wanted to set up a very major chip manufacturing plant here. They wanted some land, they wanted some subsidies. We could not give them. It was a small gesture from India. That factory shifted from India to I think Cambodia and we lost that forever.”

Having openly praised the current government for simplifying processes for the telecom industry and even issuing letters for 5G spectrum without any delay, Mittal responded to India’s prospects of emerging as a manufacturing hub by saying, “If you would have asked me this question – Will India regain its manufacturing place in the universe? – even three or four years back during the time of this government, I would have said no chance. In fact, during my lifetime, I never thought India would become a manufacturing hub for electronics. And by the way, we import over $600 billion of electronics of various forms. But I was comforted with the fact that a large part of the value chain is on the soft side (the software side)… when India participated, it said we have lost the battle for wireless hardware with the software. Today I can tell you things have changed. And one of the driving factors is trusted sources. The issue of China has become a deep stress around the globe and the cracks that have appeared on this global supply chain is giving India a very good opportunity. Now combine that with PLI, DLI - what has been ushered by the government and you're seeing manufacturing companies lining up to pick up those subsidies to set up manufacturing plants here. Again, there's been an alignment of stars here. They need to be away from China, they need to be in India, and the government is welcoming them.”

The government of India has received three silicon fab and two display fab proposals, along with other proposals under other schemes, and is yet to select and approve proposals. IT and Electronics minister Ashwini Vaishaw has already said that a “typical decision on semiconductor happens in a timeframe of 14 to 18 months, all over the world.” “On January 1 of this year is when we uploaded the applications. Today we are in a position where in the coming two or three months, we should be having the first groundbreaking ceremony for Indian semiconductor manufacturing units,” he said.

Globally, silicon has become expensive because of the supply chain stresses but industry experts say that the situation has started to improve and will further stabilise. 

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