

India's chip dream: A step-by-step approach is key, says Arvind Virmani
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI : India needs long-term, step-by-step ecosystem-building, alongside sustained investment in research and development (R&D), to achieve semiconductor capabilities, essential for a major global economy given silicon chips’ role in the information age, according to economist and NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani.
Virmani said achieving sufficient domestic semiconductor capacity cannot be done overnight, and the Central and state governments have to work together to build the ecosystem with carefully planned policy instruments—subsidies being the easiest—and improve ease of doing business, while ensuring essential infrastructure, such as land and electricity, for investors. Virmani, also a former chief economic advisor in the Union finance ministry, said today’s investments in R&D will, a decade or so later, help India to accelerate to the frontier of technology and manufacturing prowess.
Virmani’s suggestions carry weight as India emerges as a favoured destination for data centres, boosting demand for semiconductors, which also underpin the AI race as well as the industrial and military advantages enjoyed by advanced economies. The Donald Trump-led US administration regulates the supply of the most sophisticated chips to some countries, including China.
In his last Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the need for self-reliance and said 10 new semiconductor units are being built in the country on a mission mode. Virmani said India’s proposed free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) will help bring anchor investors to the country into multiple sectors, including semiconductors, with established global supply chains and markets for their
. Read on livemint.com