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January 2023
TAP TIMES TM Volume 14, Number 1
I ndia is a country of tow- and CEO and Sanjay Mehrotra, top execu-
Made in India: Pursuing the semiconductor dream
tive at Micron Technologies, the world’s
ering contrasts. At more
third largest provider of semiconductor
than 1,413,897 billion
memory and among the top 10 largest
people, it boasts the sec-
ond largest population in
the world after China’s
Strategic location
1,453,000 billion. makers of semiconductors overall.
The country is strategically located near
highly populated trading partners including
Ron Iscoff, Editor China, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In 2021,
roniscoff@gmail.com the Republic of India exported $394.8 bil-
lion worth of goods globally.
Leading the exports at the top position
was mineral fuels, including oils. The
number of semiconductors made in India
and exported has been zero.
While India has a vast number of chip
design houses, other than very limited
production of chips for special aerospace
uses, the semiconductor manufacturing
industry is almost absent. Only recently
have chip makers shown interest in the
country, and then mostly for assembly.
Wanted: chip fabricators
Like the slightly larger China, which is
building a semiconductor manufacturing
industry, India has been unable to con-
vince any of the marquee chip makers to
site a fab there.
The country is a large consumer of semi-
conductors, particularly memory, em-
India is a land of towering contrasts, of the old and the new. ployed to populate the soaring number of
Above, a model sports a new western outfit. Below is the Taj smartphones made and sold in-country.
Mahal, one of the country’s most iconic destinations.
The country, known pejoratively for its Every country of any size points with pride
many call centers, is the birthplace of many to its national airline. The same is true of
top U.S. chief executives at tech firms. semiconductors. Every country that as-
They include Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alpha- pires to propel itself from Third World
bet; Satya Nardella, Microsoft’s president next page
