India's electronics ambitions, global companies' shift from China will aid India's chip making goals, says Chris Miller

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

US memory chip maker Micron’s recent announcement of setting up a semiconductor assembly, testing, marking, and packaging (ATMP) facility in India has given the country a long-awaited breakthrough in the business of chips that power almost every device in the modern world. India set up its first chip making unit in 1983 in Mohali but then made little progress in this segment, until the government launched a Rs 76,000 productivity linked incentive scheme for chip making last year.

Geopolitically, India’s improving relations with the US have garnered it global cheer in its ambitions. But a long, complex road lies ahead before it becomes a chip making hubChris Miller, author of the corporate bestseller Chip War spoke to ET about the fast evolving, powerful business of semiconductors and India’s prospects in it.

Edited excerpts:India is a late starter in the highly complex world of semiconductors. What are its prospects?India is a small player today, but the country has large ambitions across the electronics supply chain from the production of chips all the way through their assembly into devices like smartphones or computers.

Indian industry and the Indian government are trying to play a much larger role in the industry.How do you read India’s ambitions to become a significant player in this industry?India wants to move up the electronics value chain, not only assembling devices, which is the lower value added portion of the electronics industry, but also making some of the higher value components inside of electric devices. If you look at a typical phone, the assembly process only costs a handful of dollars, whereas the chips inside sell for up to hundreds of dollars.