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In order to reduce its dependence on China and Taiwan, India will produce its own semiconductors. A way also to compensate for the shortages suffered during the Covid-19 crisis.
With our correspondent in India, Sebastien Farcis
For this, the government has launched an aid plan of nearly 10 billion euros and the first contracts have been signed for the construction of factories.
The Indian mining company Vedanta has teamed up with the Taiwanese Foxconn, which specializes in electronics. And this joint venture plans to invest around 20 billion euros to produce some of India’s first semiconductors, in the state of Gujarat, in the northwest of the country. Two other foreign companies plan to open similar factories in the south of the country.
Each time, the public authorities offer financial and structural aid to ensure the availability of land, continuous electricity and quality water, essential for this cutting-edge industry.
However, for it to flourish, it will also be necessary to invest in innovation, believes Mayank Shrivastava, associate professor at the Indian Institute of Science and co-founder of Agnit semiconductors. Because if today the question is to know who produces, tomorrow it will be to know who has access to advanced technology, such as semiconductors sans silicone.
If India therefore wants to stay in the race, it must develop its own patents, otherwise the foreigners who invent this technology will not give it access to the technology and it will no longer be able to produce the latest generation semiconductors.
Another challenge remains to be overcome for this country of 1.38 billion inhabitants, it is that of the workforce. Each factory requires close to a thousand highly skilled engineers, so India will need to strengthen its technological sectors to avoid a shortage in this area.