SemiconIndia 2022: Industry lauds Indian govt's semiconductor vision

With India’s semiconductors consumption pegged to cross $80 billion by 2026 and $110 billion by 2030, India is seriously pursuing its dream of becoming a global hub in the semiconductor space. For this, the government announced a Rs 76,000 crore incentive in December 2021 and the India Semicon Mission has organised its first semiconductor conference.

India’s maiden three-day semiconductor conference - SemiconIndia 2022 – themed around ‘Catalyzing India’s Semiconductor Ecosystem’ witnessed Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighting why India is an attractive investment destination for semiconductors and even assured the industry of constant government support. He said, “I'm glad that such a conference is being hailed in India. After all, semiconductors are playing a critical role in the world in more ways than we can imagine. It is our collective aim to establish India as one of the key partners in global semiconductor supply chains. We want to work in this direction based on the principle of high tech, high quality and high reliability.”

Putting India’s approach in the semiconductor language, PM Narendra Modi further added, “In earlier lives, industries were ready to do the work but the government was like ‘NOT Gate’. When any input flowed into the NOT gate, it gets negated. But we understand that the government must be like the ‘And Gate’. While the industry works hard, the government must work even harder. I would like to ensure we will continue to support even further."

In technical terms, A NOT gate is a logic gate that inverts the digital input signal. An AND gate, on the other hand, is a logic gate having two or more inputs and a single output.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, also pointed out how unlike other countries that think that semiconductor is the "fashion of the month," India, on the other hand, is very serious about its semiconductor plans. He reffered to PM's Modi invocation of the present decade as constituting a 'techade', or a period of unprecendented growth in India's technological capabilities.

The keynote sessions at the conference were addressed by Sanjay Mehrotra, President & CEO of Micron Technology, along with Randhir Thakur, President, Intel Foundry Services.

Thakur in his speech pointed out that in today's digital world, a domestic semiconductor industry is critical to economic growth and security.

Sharing Intel’s perspective on the powerful and remarkable commitment that India has made, Thakur added, “As our CEO Pat Gelsinger likes to say, semiconductors are the new oil in this digital age. semiconductor manufacturing will become more important than oil reserves in defining geopolitics in our digital future. Unlike oil reserves, where we do not choose the location, we can flourish and lead in semiconductor manufacturing at a place of our choosing.” He further said that Intel is focusing on creating a globally diverse manufacturing footprint to meet the demands of the future.

The three-day conference will witness key eminent industry leaders and veterans including Vinod Dham, founder, IndoUS Ventures; Nivruti Rai, Country Head, Intel India; Ajit Manocha, President & CEO, SEMI; Siva Sivaram, President, Western Digital; Rangesh Raghavan, Corporate VP & GM (India), LAM Research, among others.