Editor/Maran
Recently, the Indian government has been making
continuous efforts in the field of semiconductor R&D and manufacturing,
hoping to support the development of the local semiconductor industry through
government support funds and a broad domestic market.
Pranay Kotasthane, chair of the high-tech geopolitics
program at the Takshashila Institution in India, recently predicted that India,
the world's fifth-largest economy, will play a crucial role in semiconductors.
However, the reality is: India is not currently one of
the major players in the semiconductor industry, with very few large chip
companies and no leading manufacturing companies.
According to Indian Prime Minister Moody's plan, it hopes
to attract foreign giants to participate through industry incentives.
Focus on mature chips
In December, India approved a $10 billion semiconductor
industry incentive scheme, with the government paying half the cost of all
projects to revive the country's semiconductor industry.
In June, sources further claimed that India would spend
$30 billion to reform the tech industry and build a chip supply chain. Of that,
$10 billion will be invested in building two chip factories and two display
factories.
In addition, the Indian government will provide about $7
billion in funding to the electronics industry to attract semiconductor players
such as Foxconn and Pegatron.
On September 13, Foxconn and India's Vedanta announced
that they will jointly invest in a semiconductor manufacturing plant in India,
with a total investment of $19.5 billion, which is expected to be put into
operation in 2024.
Previously, companies such as Singapore's IGSS Ventures,
UAE's NextOrbit and Israel's Tower Semiconductor have all announced the
establishment of chip manufacturing plants in India.
These factories will become the first semiconductor
manufacturing factories in India, but according to the current information,
most of India's semiconductor manufacturing is concentrated in mature chips,
and the specifications are mostly between 65 nanometers and 28 nanometers.
Advanced fabs are important, but global demand for mature
chips isn't going away anytime soon, Kotasthane said. 5G technology and
electric vehicles still require a large number of mature chips, and most of the
current defense applications also require mature chips.
The advantage is not enough to break the game
India has obvious advantages in the global semiconductor
industry competition, such as manpower.
Semiconductor design requires a lot of skilled engineers,
Kotasthane said. According to India's Minister of Electronics and Information
Technology, there are nearly 55,000 semiconductor design engineers in India,
accounting for 20% of such professionals in the world.
In addition, the Indian government has also launched a
plan to help chip design, aiming to attract global chip design engineers to
India for development.
Another advantage is the fast-growing market. India has
the second largest population in the world and has a huge domestic consumer
market.
According to the data, India’s semiconductor market is worth
$27.2 billion in 2021 and will reach $64 billion by 2026, with a compound
annual growth rate expected to reach nearly 19%.
According to Indian officials, by 2030, India's
semiconductor demand will reach 110 billion US dollars, which will exceed 10%
of global demand. This is indeed no small temptation for semiconductor
companies.
However, the high growth cannot hide the fact that
India's foundation is weak. Judging from the recent business performance, India
still has no small problems in attracting foreign investment. Many foreign
companies have recently chosen to curtail or withdraw their investment in
India.
Lin Minwang, researcher and researcher of international
studies at Fudan University, said that after joining the Indian incentive plan
for a period of time, semiconductor manufacturers may feel a sense of
tastelessness: on the one hand, the difficult local business environment in
India makes them reluctant to increase investment, on the other hand, they do
not want to increase investment. Willing to withdraw from the country with
previous investment.
In addition, the global chip competition also makes India's
incentive plan obviously not so dazzling. Economies including the United States
and the European Union are spending huge sums of money to attract semiconductor
giants to set up factories. Therefore, India's strides in this field are likely
to only be exists as expected.
source: sina technology
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