Making India a Semiconductor Chip manufacturer – UPSC GS3

Context: India is aiming to manufacture silicon semiconductor chip, it has recently made efforts to set up a fabrication plant with the help of Taiwan, which is a leader in the Chip making industry.
Earlier initiatives: NASSCOM had in the past tried to set up ecosystem for establishing chip making industry in Andhra Pradesh
Factors that make any place an ideal location for chip making Industry:
  • Availability of water
  • Availability of sand (raw material for making silicon ingots)
  • Connectivity to all three major transport means (air, rail, road)
  • Availability of human resource (technical experts).
Other factor:
  • A system on a chip ecosystem (SoCs) is needed.
  • SoCs is a combination of chip making, designing and intellectual property.
  • Intellectual Property will enable India to take complete advantage of chip making capability, in the absence of which it will just remain a mere manufacturer of base material.
Way forward:
Government needs to take definite steps to enable India to make a mark in niche chip making industry. Also, it needs to be ensured that the industry keeps growing even after government support is withdrawn after some years.
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