New Delhi:

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said Assam is one of the top five growing states in India with 13.9 per cent gross state domestic product (GSDP) and 12.84 per cent in terms of per capita income in 2023-24.

“In 2023, when we reflect on the last two-three years, our state is among the few in India that has continued to improve the economy. Assam has registered a growth of 13.9 per cent in terms of GSDP and 12.84 per cent in terms of per capita income in 2023-24, making it one of the top five fastest growing states in the country,” Mr Sarma said at an event.

“When we look at the Economy Survey presented by the Finance Minister before parliament, you will see there are four states above Assam that registered 12 per cent growth in fiscal 2024,” Mr Sarma said.

“Irrespective of the volume of the economy, the percentage of growth Assam registered in 2023-24 shows it is among the top five growing states in the country. Our unemployment rate has decreased from 8 per cent to 6 per cent in the same period. If you look at the landscape of India in 2024, no other state has reduced unemployment rate except Assam,” he said.

“Today Assam can boast of being one of the investment-friendly states. We have implemented policies which will encourage investments. The overall private-public investment will be the first semiconductor assembling unit with an investment of Rs 50,000 crore. Tata’s investment in the semiconductor unit is up to Rs 27,000 crore, which will create 27,000 direct and indirect unemployment,” he said.

Assam has received ₹50,000 cr of investments in the last 3 years. Tata, Adani, Reliance, Airbus, Pepsi and Dassault are some of the big enterprises which will be investing in the state.@CMOfficeAssampic.twitter.com/dL6pKlv5Jb

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) September 15, 2024

“I got a letter from Reliance and they have chosen Assam to set up a biorefinery. They will set up six biorefineries in the country and Assam will be one of the states where they will build a refinery,” Mr Sarma said.

This week we are going to look at India’s ties with its near neighbours to the East- ASEAN countries, and particularly his visits this week.

The visit was part of a number of outreaches to the region in Modi’s new term:

– Modi has visited Brunei and Singapore, was due to visit Thailand for the BIMSTEC Summit which was cancelled as the government there was dismissed. He will travel to Laos in October for the ASEAN-India summit and East Asia Summit.

-New Delhi has hosted the PM of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh and the PM of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim in the past three months

-President Murmu travelled to Timor Leste on a visit to New Zealand and Fiji

In Brunei, the first bilateral visit by an Indian PM, Modi and the Sultan of Brunei discussed a number of issues, including:

1. Strategic issues and enhancing defence cooperation. At present they are not strategic partners but do participate in military exercises and are working on a Joint working group to institutionalise the relationship. More importantly, Modi took aim at China given its disputes in the South China Sea with Brueni and other ASEAN partners.

2. An MoU renewing space cooperation including research and training, also Brunei hosts at Telemetry Tracking Command Centre for ISRO

3. Increasing energy supplies from Brunei, which have dropped sharply as India has bumped up its intake of Russian oil. They discussed a long term contract for LNG

4. And Trade- where despite India’s trade with other ASEAN countries doubling in the past decade, trade with Brunei has actually declined- from hovering around US $500mn, it is down to about $200 million last year. In comparison, China-Brunei trade stands at about $3 billion.

Modi’s visit was a study in contrasts- given his next trip was to Singapore. PM Lawrence Wong was only sworn in a few months ago, compared to the Sultan of Brunei who is the world’s longest serving monarch- in power since 1967.

1. Singapore is India’s biggest trade partner in the ASEAN grouping with bilateral trade at about $35 billion, which has seen a 2.5 times increase since they signed the CECA agreement in 2005. About 9,000 Indian companies are registered in Singapore-

2. SINGAPORE is also India’s biggest source of FDI globally – cumulative $160 billion since 2000, although levels dropped a sharp 30% last year. More in an interview I did with Singapore FM Balakrishnan

3. India and Singapore have the strongest strategic partnership amongst ASEAN countries, highest number of military exchanges and exercises

4. The highlight of the visit was the signing of a Semiconductor Ecosystem partnership, along with MoUs on digital cooperation, health and skill development. Modi also visited Singapore’s AEM factory.

-Semiconductors are used in all electronic devices- crucial for India’s growth as a high-tech manufacturing hub

-Singapore produces 10% of semiconductors worldwide a $588 billion industry worldwide, and is a major player in IC design, packaging and wafer fabrication- an industry it has built up over 6 decades

-With land and labour issues, and US-China contestation, Singapore is looking to diversify its Semiconductor manufacturing and invest in other countries, at a time India is seeking semiconductor investment.

-The MoU says both sides seek resilient semiconductor supply chains, in a reference to de-risking US China rivalry for the region, including the US’s protectionist moves and China’s predatory practices.

What are the challenges for India in its outreach to the east?

 1. India has opted out of the ASEAN-led RCEP agreement in 2020, which has not just disappointed those countries, it has led to questions about India’s reliability in negotiations

2. India’s trade with ASEAN nations has grown to $120 billion last year, but ASEAN’s largest trading partner remains China with about $722 billion in bilateral trade and $440 billion with the US in 2022

3. Maritime connectivity to ASEAN countries is historic, but India remains hampered on land connectivity due to tensions in the North East and in Myanmar which connect India on the proposed tri-nation highway to South East Asia.

4. India has also taken a divergent position on engaging the Myanmar military junta post-Coup from ASEAN position, and invited its Minister to the BIMSTEC summit, which ASEAN doesn’t.

5. Even though the region hosts many US bases, ASEAN countries have adopted a more cautious approach on Chinese aggression against Taiwan, and on India’s participation in the Quad. New Delhi will have to coordinate its strategic position carefully if it means to stick to its motto of “ASEAN centrality” in the Indo-Pacific.

6. Communal tensions in India have been met with rising concerns in several ASEAN countries including Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia – that are also multicultural, multireligious and have large Indian diaspora.

WV Take: India’s ties with ASEAN countries date back more than 10 centuries, with engagement on trade, culture, religion, and people migrating there. India has made many restarts on its ASEAN engagement, from the Look East in the 1990s to Act East in 2015- but until it breaks the cycle of neglecting the region when other issues come up,it will be hard to sustain the obvious advantages of cooperation with them. Above all India could take a leaf from ASEAN success for groupings like SAARC and BIMSTEC.

WV Reading Recommendations:

1. THE ASEAN MIRACLE by Kishore Mahbubani, also Has the West Lost it and Living the Asian Century

2. East Of India, South Of China by Amitav Acharya

3. The Merlion And The Ashoka: Singapore-india Strategic Ties Edited by Anit Mukherjee

4. Thirty Years of ASEAN-India Relations: Towards Indo-Pacific Edited by Prabir De

5. Does ASEAN Matter?: A View from Within by Marty Natalegawa (Indonesian diplomat and former FM)

6. Chip War by Chris Miller

7. When the Chips Are Down by Pranay Kotasthane and Abhiram Manchi

 

(This is the second article in a two-part series on the US-China semiconductor battle, and where India stands in it. Here is the first part)

When Chandrayaan 3 landed on the moon on August 23 last year, there was one place in Mohali that was particularly jubilant: the government-run Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL). It was a personal win for SCL’s engineers, the unsung heroes who for months worked on producing a wide variety of semiconductors critical for controlling and commanding the mission. The spacecraft used chips to enable communication with Earth and navigate its way to the landing destination, using sensors and cameras to transmit data and messages.

Mohali’s SCL is India’s only well-known chip-making foundry. It began production in 1984, three years before the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturing company, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), was founded.

Today, however, while TSMC produces 90% of the world’s most sophisticated and advanced semiconductors or microchips, churning out the most valued 5-nanometer (nm) chips in size, SCL can make only legacy chips of 100 nm and above, which are obviously many generations old. TSMC’s annual turnover exceeded $70 billion last year, far more than the SCL’s meagre $5 million. And while TSMC’s clients are some of the world’s leading tech firms, such as Apple, AMD and Nvidia, among SCL’s top clients is just ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). TSMC’s factories are state-of-the-art; SCL is in dire need of modernisation and upgradation.

India’s Tough Luck

SCL could have been TSMC’s largest rival if it were not for one very unfortunate incident, which pushed India back to the semiconductor dark ages. On February 27, 1989, a mysterious fire broke out in the plant, destroying most of the facilities. To date, no one knows if it was an act of sabotage or an accident. The factory later rose from the ashes, but by then, it was left far behind in the race.

Dan Hutcheson of Canada’s TechInsights company, one of the industry’s global voices, surprised me when he said he had been monitoring the Indian chip industry since the 1970s. “I have seen India strive for this industry my entire career. There have been only failures. It is important for India to be successful now.” Dan is not wrong, as India’s semiconductor history is made up of a series of broken dreams and unfulfilled promises. Several multinational companies tried their luck in setting up chip production projects, but they did not materialise for various reasons.

Micron Project, A Sign Of Good Things To Come

It took India over three decades after the 1989 tragedy to see a positive development in its semiconductor journey. In August last year, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Sanand, Gujarat, for Micron Technology’s state-of-the-art semiconductor assembly, testing, and packaging facility. Its bosses claim the facility will be operational early next year. The plant will be completed in two phases at a cost of $2.75 billion – $825 million being invested by Micron, and the rest by the Centre and the Gujarat government.

The Micron project appears to be the beginning of the country’s bright chip future. Since the groundbreaking ceremony last year, four new projects have been announced, the latest on Monday when the government said it cleared a proposal of Kaynes Semicon to set up a semiconductor unit in Sanand. All the new units, except Tata Electronics’ fab unit in Dholera in Gujarat are testing and packaging units. Taiwain’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) and Tata Electronics announced in February this year that they will set up a fabrication unit in Dholera. I am sure the government will be more keen to see the progress of this project because it’s India’s first fab unit in the private sector. Neither company in their press statements have given a completion date or the costs involved but according to media reports, the total project will cost Rs 91,000 crore.

India have witnessed several false dawns in the last few decades, but now things appear to be changing, and at a fast speed. There was a time when India could not even dream of producing sophisticated smartphones. That was a domain exclusively captured by China. Today, India is a manufacturing hub for iPhones and other smartphone brands. Citing this success story, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last year, “We have successfully made India a manufacturing hub for mobile phones over the last decade. Now, our next goal is to position the country as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing.”

India Is Established In Just One Segment 

A semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem requires infrastructure for designing, fabrication, research, testing, and packaging. Besides, it needs sophisticated tools, minerals, and gases to make chips. While India severely lacks large-scale semiconductor fabrication facilities, it has built a robust ecosystem for chip design and related services. Major global semiconductor companies such as Intel, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, NVIDIA, AMD and Broadcom have established significant design and R&D centres in India. Indian engineers contribute to the design of the most complex chips used in cutting-edge technologies, from artificial intelligence to 5G networks. Companies like Wipro, Tata Elxsi, and HCL Technologies also provide outsourced semiconductor design services, catering to global clients.

“Learn To Walk Before You Can Run”

Now, the Modi government wants India to become a fabrication, R&D, testing, and packaging hub. A tall order indeed, considering India is only at the beginning of the chip race — but not an impossible one. I have spoken to several industry experts worldwide over the last two years, and they believe India can become a semiconductor hub and a global player in 10-20 years if it stays as focused, patient, and committed as the Modi government appears to be today.

To put India’s efforts in perspective, we ought to remember that it took semiconductor superpowers Taiwan and South Korea decades to reach where they are in the race today. “Realistically, it’ll take 10 to 20 years, assuming it is well-executed. You have to learn to walk before you can run. That’s the important thing – to make sure the Micron project is successful,” says Hutcheson, who calls the Micron packaging project “a great baby step”. To be sure, South Korea, Taiwan, and China all started with packaging units.

India’s Challenges

Chip fabrication, which allows for the production of 5 nm or even 2 nm microchips, is widely believed to be the key to the success of a semiconductor mission. A host of things are needed before manufacturing can start 10-15 years later. This is not a simple industry; it requires a lot of work and high-end equipment and materials. 

1. Investment

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association estimates, a state-of-the-art manufacturing factory takes a minimum of 10 years to produce chips. The initial capital investment and operating costs can run up to anywhere between $10 billion and $40 billion. If India dreams of being a chi hub, it will have to invest hugely in the sector in the next 10-15 years. China has been doing just that, pouring billions of dollars into becoming self-reliant in semiconductor manufacturing. The US has pumped in over $100 billion in its own industry since 2022. Against these stark figures, India has managed to inject just about $15 billion into its semiconductor project. 

What India badly needs is private investors and global players.

2. Gases and Mineral Shortages

Semiconductor chip manufacturing essentially uses more than 150 types of chemicals and over 30 types of gases and minerals. At present, all these are available only in a few countries. The challenge for India is to be self-reliant in this sector.

3. Supporting Industries

Some experts believe that the main task for India is to create supporting industries for the chip industry to emerge. The issue relates to some basic things, like having a stable power grid and consistent water availability, which make it possible to build the semiconductor industry.

4. Political Will

The chip industry is capital-intensive and time-consuming, which requires deep commitment from the government and private players alike. It requires the willpower of successive governments to stay in the game. PM Modi wants India to be a developed economy by 2047. A long-term semiconductor strategy will be needed if India really is to become a developed country by 2047.

5. Skilled Manpower

India has manpower in abundance, but it has a shortage of the kind of skilled manpower needed in the semiconductor industry.

6. Brain Drain

India could achieve its goal of becoming a semiconductor hub in around five to six years rather than the conventional 10-20 year timeframe if we manage to bring big Indian talent, serving global companies, back home. Can we entice them with equivalent salary packages and perks? Can nation-building be a motivator? Can we improve our work culture to make it more professional and productive?

Taiwan’s success story owes a lot to the Taiwanese-origin executives who obtained their semiconductor expertise and experiences in the US. The Taiwanese government in the 1980s decided to bring its talented people back to kickstart the semiconductor industry. It paid them salaries on a par with Western companies. These expat Taiwanese played a huge role in making Taiwan a truly global chip hub.

South Korea’s chip revolution also started after the government enticed many Korean experts working in Japanese companies to come back and work in Korea.

There is no dearth of Indians who are doing well in the semiconductor business in the US and elsewhere. Around a dozen leaders of the world’s leading chip-making companies are either Indian or of Indian origin. I have met a couple. They all love India. But India needs to create the right conditions to bring them back, and also stop the brain drain of young engineering graduates who are in high demand abroad.

A New Dawn

India is on the cusp of sealing deals with several multinational companies to launch new projects. The Modi government has recognised the fact that if India needs to be a big geopolitical player, it needs to be the leading light in the semiconductor arena. What follows after the Micron factory will determine the future of India’s semiconductor industry.

(Syed Zubair Ahmed is a London-based senior Indian journalist with three decades of experience with the Western media)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

(This is the second article in a two-part series on the US-China semiconductor battle, and where India stands in it. Here is the first part)

When Chandrayaan 3 landed on the moon on August 23 last year, there was one place in Mohali that was particularly jubilant: the government-run Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL). It was a personal win for SCL’s engineers, the unsung heroes who for months worked on producing a wide variety of semiconductors critical for controlling and commanding the mission. The spacecraft used chips to enable communication with Earth and navigate its way to the landing destination, using sensors and cameras to transmit data and messages.

Mohali’s SCL is India’s only well-known chip-making foundry. It began production in 1984, three years before the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturing company, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), was founded.

Today, however, while TSMC produces 90% of the world’s most sophisticated and advanced semiconductors or microchips, churning out the most valued 5-nanometer (nm) chips in size, SCL can make only legacy chips of 100 nm and above, which are obviously many generations old. TSMC’s annual turnover exceeded $70 billion last year, far more than the SCL’s meagre $5 million. And while TSMC’s clients are some of the world’s leading tech firms, such as Apple, AMD and Nvidia, among SCL’s top clients is just ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). TSMC’s factories are state-of-the-art; SCL is in dire need of modernisation and upgradation.

India’s Tough Luck

SCL could have been TSMC’s largest rival if it were not for one very unfortunate incident, which pushed India back to the semiconductor dark ages. On February 27, 1989, a mysterious fire broke out in the plant, destroying most of the facilities. To date, no one knows if it was an act of sabotage or an accident. The factory later rose from the ashes, but by then, it was left far behind in the race.

Dan Hutcheson of Canada’s TechInsights company, one of the industry’s global voices, surprised me when he said he had been monitoring the Indian chip industry since the 1970s. “I have seen India strive for this industry my entire career. There have been only failures. It is important for India to be successful now.” Dan is not wrong, as India’s semiconductor history is made up of a series of broken dreams and unfulfilled promises. Several multinational companies tried their luck in setting up chip production projects, but they did not materialise for various reasons.

Micron Project, A Sign Of Good Things To Come

It took India over three decades after the 1989 tragedy to see a positive development in its semiconductor journey. In August last year, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Sanand, Gujarat, for Micron Technology’s state-of-the-art semiconductor assembly, testing, and packaging facility. Its bosses claim the facility will be operational early next year. The plant will be completed in two phases at a cost of $2.75 billion – $825 million being invested by Micron, and the rest by the Centre and the Gujarat government.

The Micron project appears to be the beginning of the country’s bright chip future. Since the groundbreaking ceremony last year, four new projects have been announced, the latest on Monday when the government said it cleared a proposal of Kaynes Semicon to set up a semiconductor unit in Sanand. All the new units, except Tata Electronics’ fab unit in Dholera in Gujarat are testing and packaging units. Taiwain’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) and Tata Electronics announced in February this year that they will set up a fabrication unit in Dholera. I am sure the government will be more keen to see the progress of this project because it’s India’s first fab unit in the private sector. Neither company in their press statements have given a completion date or the costs involved but according to media reports, the total project will cost Rs 91,000 crore.

India have witnessed several false dawns in the last few decades, but now things appear to be changing, and at a fast speed. There was a time when India could not even dream of producing sophisticated smartphones. That was a domain exclusively captured by China. Today, India is a manufacturing hub for iPhones and other smartphone brands. Citing this success story, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last year, “We have successfully made India a manufacturing hub for mobile phones over the last decade. Now, our next goal is to position the country as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing.”

India Is Established In Just One Segment 

A semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem requires infrastructure for designing, fabrication, research, testing, and packaging. Besides, it needs sophisticated tools, minerals, and gases to make chips. While India severely lacks large-scale semiconductor fabrication facilities, it has built a robust ecosystem for chip design and related services. Major global semiconductor companies such as Intel, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, NVIDIA, AMD and Broadcom have established significant design and R&D centres in India. Indian engineers contribute to the design of the most complex chips used in cutting-edge technologies, from artificial intelligence to 5G networks. Companies like Wipro, Tata Elxsi, and HCL Technologies also provide outsourced semiconductor design services, catering to global clients.

“Learn To Walk Before You Can Run”

Now, the Modi government wants India to become a fabrication, R&D, testing, and packaging hub. A tall order indeed, considering India is only at the beginning of the chip race — but not an impossible one. I have spoken to several industry experts worldwide over the last two years, and they believe India can become a semiconductor hub and a global player in 10-20 years if it stays as focused, patient, and committed as the Modi government appears to be today.

To put India’s efforts in perspective, we ought to remember that it took semiconductor superpowers Taiwan and South Korea decades to reach where they are in the race today. “Realistically, it’ll take 10 to 20 years, assuming it is well-executed. You have to learn to walk before you can run. That’s the important thing – to make sure the Micron project is successful,” says Hutcheson, who calls the Micron packaging project “a great baby step”. To be sure, South Korea, Taiwan, and China all started with packaging units.

India’s Challenges

Chip fabrication, which allows for the production of 5 nm or even 2 nm microchips, is widely believed to be the key to the success of a semiconductor mission. A host of things are needed before manufacturing can start 10-15 years later. This is not a simple industry; it requires a lot of work and high-end equipment and materials. 

1. Investment

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association estimates, a state-of-the-art manufacturing factory takes a minimum of 10 years to produce chips. The initial capital investment and operating costs can run up to anywhere between $10 billion and $40 billion. If India dreams of being a chi hub, it will have to invest hugely in the sector in the next 10-15 years. China has been doing just that, pouring billions of dollars into becoming self-reliant in semiconductor manufacturing. The US has pumped in over $100 billion in its own industry since 2022. Against these stark figures, India has managed to inject just about $15 billion into its semiconductor project. 

What India badly needs is private investors and global players.

2. Gases and Mineral Shortages

Semiconductor chip manufacturing essentially uses more than 150 types of chemicals and over 30 types of gases and minerals. At present, all these are available only in a few countries. The challenge for India is to be self-reliant in this sector.

3. Supporting Industries

Some experts believe that the main task for India is to create supporting industries for the chip industry to emerge. The issue relates to some basic things, like having a stable power grid and consistent water availability, which make it possible to build the semiconductor industry.

4. Political Will

The chip industry is capital-intensive and time-consuming, which requires deep commitment from the government and private players alike. It requires the willpower of successive governments to stay in the game. PM Modi wants India to be a developed economy by 2047. A long-term semiconductor strategy will be needed if India really is to become a developed country by 2047.

5. Skilled Manpower

India has manpower in abundance, but it has a shortage of the kind of skilled manpower needed in the semiconductor industry.

6. Brain Drain

India could achieve its goal of becoming a semiconductor hub in around five to six years rather than the conventional 10-20 year timeframe if we manage to bring big Indian talent, serving global companies, back home. Can we entice them with equivalent salary packages and perks? Can nation-building be a motivator? Can we improve our work culture to make it more professional and productive?

Taiwan’s success story owes a lot to the Taiwanese-origin executives who obtained their semiconductor expertise and experiences in the US. The Taiwanese government in the 1980s decided to bring its talented people back to kickstart the semiconductor industry. It paid them salaries on a par with Western companies. These expat Taiwanese played a huge role in making Taiwan a truly global chip hub.

South Korea’s chip revolution also started after the government enticed many Korean experts working in Japanese companies to come back and work in Korea.

There is no dearth of Indians who are doing well in the semiconductor business in the US and elsewhere. Around a dozen leaders of the world’s leading chip-making companies are either Indian or of Indian origin. I have met a couple. They all love India. But India needs to create the right conditions to bring them back, and also stop the brain drain of young engineering graduates who are in high demand abroad.

A New Dawn

India is on the cusp of sealing deals with several multinational companies to launch new projects. The Modi government has recognised the fact that if India needs to be a big geopolitical player, it needs to be the leading light in the semiconductor arena. What follows after the Micron factory will determine the future of India’s semiconductor industry.

(Syed Zubair Ahmed is a London-based senior Indian journalist with three decades of experience with the Western media)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Singapore:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi accompanied by his Singapore counterpart Lawrence Wong on Thursday visited a leading Singaporean company in the semiconductor and electronics sector and discussed ways for collaboration in this critical industry.

PM Modi is here on a two-day visit at the invitation of Singapore PM Wong.

Both the leaders visited AEM Holdings Ltd and were briefed about the company’s role in the global semiconductor value chain, its operations and plans for India, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a press statement.

“Boosting ties in the area of Advanced manufacturing. PM @narendramodi and PM @LawrenceWongST visited AEM Holdings Ltd. today, a leading Singaporean company in the semiconductors and electronics sector. The leaders held discussions with the stakeholders on opportunities for collaboration between India and Singapore in the field of semiconductors,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X.

Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association gave a briefing on the development of the semiconductor ecosystem in Singapore and opportunities for collaboration with India, the statement said.

“Given our efforts to develop the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in India and Singapore’s strengths in this sector, both sides have decided to expand bilateral cooperation. During the 2nd meeting of the India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable, both sides agreed to add advanced manufacturing, with a focus on semiconductors, as a pillar for enhancing bilateral cooperation,” the press statement said.

Both sides have also concluded the memorandum of understanding on India-Singapore Semiconductor Ecosystem Partnership, it said.

At the facility, both the leaders also interacted with Indian interns from Odisha’s World Skill Center undergoing training in Singapore as well as Singaporean interns who visited India under the CII-Enterprise Singapore India Ready Talent Programme and Indian engineers working at AEM.

“During the visit to AEM Holdings, PM @narendramodi and PM @LawrenceWongST also interacted with Indian interns from Odisha’s World Skill Center visiting Singapore as well as Singaporean interns who had visited India under the CII-Enterprise Singapore India Ready Talent Programme and Indian engineers working at AEM,” Jaiswal said in a post on X.

The visit to the company by both the leaders underscores commitment of both sides to develop cooperation in this area. Prime Minister Modi conveyed his appreciation to Prime Minister Wong for joining him in this visit, the statement said.

Prime Minister Modi also invited the Singaporean semiconductor companies to participate in the SEMICON INDIA exhibition to be held in Greater Noida on September 11-13, 2024.

PM Modi flew to Singapore on Wednesday after wrapping his visit to Brunei, the first bilateral visit there by an Indian prime minister.

He was accorded a warm welcome by the Indian community on his arrival here. 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

With its advanced capabilities to identify chip defects, the Quantum Diamond Microchip Imager is a leap forward in semiconductor imaging. Representational
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-Bombay) has entered a strategic partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to develop India’s first Quantum Diamond Microchip Imager.

This advanced sensing tool will hold the potential to unlock new levels of precision in the examination of semiconductor chips, reduce chip failures and improve the energy efficiency of electronic devices.

Over the next two years, experts from TCS will work with Dr. Kasturi Saha, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering of IIT Bombay, to develop the quantum imaging platform in the PQuest Lab.

This platform will enable better quality control of semiconductor chips, thereby improving product reliability, safety, and energy efficiency of electrical devices.

Semiconductor chips are essential to all modern electronic devices, making them smart and efficient. With the ability to process data and complete tasks, these chips act as the brains of devices across industries such as communications, computing, healthcare, military systems, transportation and clean energy.

Dr. Kasturi Saha said, “PQuest group at IIT-Bombay is excited to collaborate with TCS on developing a quantum imaging platform for the non-destructive examination of chips, leveraging our extensive expertise in quantum sensing to drive innovation. We aim to transform various sectors, including electronics and healthcare, and propel India forward through groundbreaking technologies and products aligned with National Quantum Mission’s Quantum Sensing and Metrology vertical.” 

Dr. Harrick Vin, Chief Technology Officer, TCS, said, “The Second Quantum Revolution is progressing at an unprecedented speed, making it imperative to pool our resources and expertise to build cutting-edge capabilities in sensing, computing, and communication technologies. This initiative will have a transformative impact on various industries and society, with applications ranging from electronics to healthcare, and beyond. By working together, we can drive innovation and create a brighter future for all.”

‘We are keen to collaborate with industry’

The collaboration between TCS and IIT-Bombay is aligned with the National Quantum Mission — an initiative by the Government of India to position the nation as a global quantum technology leader.

Prof. Shireesh Kedare, Director, IIT-Bombay, said, “This collaboration aims to develop a quantum imaging platform for the non-destructive examination of chips. We are keen to collaborate with industry to translate the ideas, innovations and research into the technologies and products through such collaborations as well as start-ups that will take India ahead.”

Wide application

As semiconductors continue to shrink in size, traditional sensing methods lack the precision and capabilities to detect anomalies in chips. The Quantum Diamond Microchip Imager can image magnetic fields, enabling a non-invasive and non-destructive mapping of semiconductor chips, much like an MRI at a hospital.

It uses the defects in a diamond’s structure, known as Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centres, together with the other hardware and software for detecting and characterizing anomalies in semiconductor chips. The diagnostic capabilities will have significant implications for failure analysis, device development, and various optimisation processes, Mr. Kedare explained.

With its advanced capabilities to identify chip defects such as current leakages and enable visualisation of three-dimensional charge flow in multi-layer chips, Quantum Diamond Microchip Imager is a leap forward in semiconductor imaging.

It will have wide applications in microelectronics, biological, and geological imaging, and fine-scale imaging of magnetic fields, among others. This project builds on TCS and IIT-Bombay’s dynamic partnership since the 1990s, spanning joint research projects, collaborative education programs, internships, faculty development programs, and more. IIT-Bombay was the first institute to be signed as an academic partner for TCS’ Co-Innovation Network, a platform driving industry-academia collaboration for pioneering solutions. 

Representational image of employees at the assembly line of a mobile phone manufacturing plant
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Semiconductor design initiatives have to be encouraged with improved domestic fundraising opportunities and incentives for using domestically registered intellectual property (IP), the India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) said in a report released Thursday. As China’s semiconductor industry faces hesitant investors due to geopolitical tensions, the report says, India must seize the strategic opportunity that semiconductors present. 

Referring to arguments by economists like Raghuram Rajan that the semiconductor push may not present optimal opportunities economically (or in terms of jobs), Pankaj Mohindroo, the ICEA’s chairman, pushed back strongly, calling such arguments “self-destructive for India”. “Capacity building for high tech and semiconductors is important,” Mr. Mohindroo said.

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“Though we have 20% of the world’s semicon engineers, none of the IPs are with India,” A.M. Devendranath, the CEO of research firm Feedback Advisory pointed out. Engineers instead work for global firms from India, which register the IP in the U.S. or elsewhere. Mr. Mohindroo suggested that incentives should be provided to use domestically registered IP in key sectors, such as in expanding telecom networks.

The report highlights the strengths of other countries who have had some success in the semiconductor supply chain: China has “over-invested” in low-tech chips, crashing global prices and investment appetite for researching them, while opening up initiatives that make access to funding easy with early exits for investors; Malaysia has focused sharply on outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) units, an area where it is number four, after Taiwan, China and the US. 

S. Krishnan, the Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, said in a foreword to the report that the government’s efforts “aligns perfectly” with the ICEA report’s suggestions already. “While India has made appreciable strides in electronics manufacturing, the semiconductor industry demands targeted policy actions,” Mr. Krishnan said. 

A key suggestion that the report makes is to follow China’s example of subsidising photomasks (also known as mask sets), equipment similar to photocopying plates that allow light to selectively shine on silicon wafers with precision. Photomasks are an expensive but critical component in chip fabrication. China subsidises 80% of photomask costs for semiconductor firms; a similar incentive should be provided for in the design-linked incentive scheme run by the IT Ministry, the ICEA suggested.