{"id":235621,"date":"2023-04-01T20:03:28","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T14:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=235621"},"modified":"2023-04-02T17:42:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T12:12:21","slug":"indias-semiconductor-mission-might-need-a-compass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-semiconductor-mission-might-need-a-compass\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s semiconductor mission might need a compass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cIndia\u2019s semiconductor mission might need a compass\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on 1st April 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Indian Economy<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>– Electronics manufacturing<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– The United States Department of Commerce and its Indian counterpart have recently concluded a memorandum of understanding in March 2023 to ensure that subsidies by each country does not impact India\u2019s semiconductor mission.<\/p>\n

What are issues with existing institutional structure for semiconductor manufacturing in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Semi\u00ad Conductor Laboratory (SCL)<\/strong> was set up in Mohali in 1983 by the then central government, with the vision of creating an electronics ecosystem in India.<\/p>\n

However, the opening up of markets for consumer goods in 1991 and a fire that broke out in 1989 at the SCL, dashed these hopes.<\/p>\n

The facility has not been successful in creating a domestic semiconductor ecosystem. <\/strong><\/p>\n

What is the way forward for the semiconductor mission of India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The institutional framework<\/strong> already exists. SCL has been transferred back to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY), as part of the new semiconductor policy<\/strong> announced in December 2021. However, no joint venture partner has been found.<\/p>\n

During this period, the focus at MeITY seems aimed at attracting Intel into India to set up a fab. However, Intel primarily operates at <22nm node and 300mm. It requires over $10 billion in upgrade cost<\/strong> to the SCL.<\/p>\n

An alternate approach<\/strong> could be to leverage human and capital assets at the SCL<\/strong> to build on existing base in a targeted manner, by taking advantage of recent technological breakthroughs <\/strong>in a class of semiconductors that do not need advanced lithography equipment.<\/p>\n

The segment of >180 nm node involves mixed signal analog, wide bandgap (GaN, GaAs, Silicon Carbide) for RF and power markets leveraging existing lithography capability already in place at the SCL.<\/p>\n

In this scenario, an investment of $50\u00ad-$100 million may result in the development of Indian solutions <\/strong>for automotive electronics, PV\u00adInverters, 5G infra\u00adpower amplifiers, railway electronics.<\/p>\n

However, the upgrade has to be backed by subsidies aimed at fabless design houses<\/strong> with proven design willing to fabricate at the SCL in the 180 nm+ node.<\/p>\n

The subsidies have to be aimed at global design companies with products aimed at India\u00ad specific markets <\/strong>such as motor drives for BLDC fans or e\u00adbike chargers.<\/p>\n

The recent efforts by the India Semiconductor Mission<\/strong> to open up subsidies to global small andmedium sized enterprises in the upstream supply chain<\/strong> are welcome. Existing facilities like the SCL will benefit from this. But this should be coupled with more incentives.<\/p>\n

The SCL needs a full time director <\/strong>with field experience rather than a career scientist from the Department of Space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cIndia\u2019s semiconductor mission might need a compass\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 1st April 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Indian Economy Relevance– Electronics manufacturing News– The United States Department of Commerce and its Indian counterpart have recently concluded a memorandum of understanding in March 2023 to ensure that subsidies… Continue reading India\u2019s semiconductor mission might need a compass<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,8678,10498],"class_list":["post-235621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-semiconductor-industry","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":5,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1698370533},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}