Semicon India event brought a lot of promise this year, building on recent developments in the ecosystem. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the event for both two days, lending his support to India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) which holds special significance as the world has experienced severe chip shortage during the Covid-19 pandemic. In an exclusive interview to businessline, Ajit Manocha, President and CEO of California-headquartered Semiconductor Equipment & Material International (SEMI) described the foundational relevance of the semiconductor industry to businesses across sector as also to national and economic security. Manocha also said that it will take at least 4-5 years for India to become a semiconductor base. Edited excerpts: –
How is India progressing in its Seminconductor mission?
I think India has a vision. The policies, capital and needs of the country are all aligned. India started this journey late, but with a right kind of set up. SEMI is also playing the role of collating an ecosystem into the country. I think we are on a very good trajectory. The ecosystem is not really there at the moment but it is starting to build. It will take a few more years before we say that ‘we are good in ecosystem’. It would take four to five years…all these things take time. Companies are driven by business prospects, and with ISM-2 almost ready, they’ll likely come when they see opportunities. With a large market of 1.4 billion people, demand isn’t a concern. To succeed, we need around 200 companies to set up operations here.
Until then, will be just assembling chips or some projects are being worked out from ground up?
It is both ways. There will be several products which will be designed in India, with partial manufacturing outside and partial manufacturing in India, and that’s how it will progress. And the good percentage of that can come after the fabs get operational. We just need to be patient…several Indian companies are developing their chip designs — so chip design, wafer manufacturing and assembling facilities are here. I think Tata will be building chips from the ground up. Some of the compound semiconductor companies will also build the chips from the ground up. The likes of Micron are doing assembly and test, they have fabricating chips somewhere else and assembling, packaging and testing is done here. The ecosystem for assembling and tests is large, less critical and complex compared to wafer fab, plus the risk and the capital investment in the assembly industry is also a lot lower. But also, these big companies like Micron, they also enable the ecosystem by bringing their suppliers from their network worldwide.
So, we’ll still need to rely on other countries?
We are not going to produce different nodes or different technologies at the same time. No country can do everything by themselves. We’re still going to remain dependent on many countries to have a complete semiconductor playbook. China is very good now in making legacy technologies like 40 nm and above. Self reliance doesn‘t mean doing everything 100 per cent. It will be practically difficult or impossible or even take 15 years. Instead, we should focus on solving part of the Indian market’s needs and using that as a base for exports. So we’ll continue with some product categories and chips, while we should aspire for making things which are consumed in India surely. But same base can be utilised for export globally because semiconductor is a global product. We have to look at economies of scale and see we are globally competitive. That is how we should look at the roadmap and that is how the industry would progress.
One important aspect is also of employability because under the ISM, the government has announced millions of jobs opportunities direct or indirect. Do you think India has enough skilled workers for this industry?
India produces many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) graduates, but lacks sufficient training opportunities for them. That is why a lot of people are focused on skill development. The good thing is that we have the raw material (fresh graduates) here and we can train them either locally, or we can send them abroad for experience. As manufacturing grows in India, we’ll see a more balanced approach. They will realise that we do not have to import so much talent from outside, but start with some raw talent and train them on the job. That’s the way things will evolve. For instance, we heard that Tata fab has people from 18 countries and they are also training people locally within India, to be ready for their fabs. So, I think this will be a hybrid approach — there are people on the job training, get experienced people from other countries, and they will actually help train the local talent. This approach is common globally, seen in countries like US, Japan, China, South Korea. For example, in South Korea. With the right policies and vision in place, India can retain talent by offering employment opportunities, reducing the need for professionals to seek opportunities abroad.
Published on September 7, 2025
