Govt announces steps to make semiconductors

New Delhi, April 30

With India’s own consumption of semiconductors expected to cross $80 billion by 2026 and $110 billion by 2030, the government announced a series of initiatives to kick-start the process for manufacturing the semi-conductor chips here.

The chips are used in a wide array of products, including consumer devices, automobiles, laptops, mobile phones and smart TVs and collectively are valued to the tune of $20.5 billion. Multiple Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) have been signed between the government, leading semiconductor industry players and industry associations and were announced today at international conference at Bengaluru. These include pacts to design and co-develop semi-conductors. A programme has been initiated with a vision to make India not only a hub of the world, but also supplier of solutions for servers, mobile devices and automotive micro-controllers across the globe.

Among the MoUs announced today were between Sony India and IIT, Madras, for the systems and products developed by Sony. Another one is between ISRO and IIT, Madras, for development of high performance ‘system on chip’.