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India is “rolling out the red carpet” for global semiconductor manufacturers and aims to become an industry hub, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.
Modi spoke after inaugurating the second annual global summit of SemiconIndia in Gandhinagar. The three-day summit, organised by the Indian government, is being attended by semiconductor majors like Foxconn, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Micron, and Applied Materials.
“Earlier, people were questioning our aim to make chips and were asking ‘why invest (in India)’. Now, the question has changed to ‘why not invest,” said Modi. “Whoever moves fast in this will get the first-mover’s advantage… we are rolling out the red carpet for them.”
He said the country has made rapid growth in electronic manufacturing. “A few years ago, India was an emerging player in the electronics sector. Today our share has increased multiple times… In 2014, electronics production in India was less than $30 billion, and today it is over $100 billion.”
USA’s AMD announced at the event it will invest around $400 million in India over the next five years and it will build its largest design centre in the country in Bengaluru. The 500,000-square-foot campus will be AMD’s 10th office location in India. The company has more than 6,500 employees in the country and it will hire another 3,000 people in the next five years.
“Throughout my career, I have been asked whether India is ready to be part of the global semiconductor industry. Today, I can say the journey has begun. For the first time, geopolitics, domestic policies and private sector capacity are aligned in India’s favour to become a player in semiconductor production,” said Ajit Manocha, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the global industry body, SEMI.
Anil Agarwal, founder and chairman of Vedanta Resources Limited, reiterated his company’s semiconductor manufacturing plan in India. The company has identified a world-class technology partner to end a hurdle in securing government incentives for chip manufacturing, he said.
“Vedanta is fully committed to build semiconductor and display fab. The kind of response we have got in Japan, Korea, America – the ecosystem will be built around Gujarat and we have signed 100s of MoUs for this purpose,” he said.
“We appointed international experts who travelled to all states in India, but found that Gujarat is the best state to build the silicon valley of India. Vedanata is fully committed to build semiconductor and display fabs,” said Agarwal.
Taiwan’s Foxconn, a global contract manufacturing giant, said it is committed to be a partner in India’s semiconductor journey.
“Taiwan is and will be your most trusted and reliable partner…Let’s do this together,” said Young Liu, CEO of Foxconn Technology Group.
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