Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called upon the industry to make India a semi-conductor hub, underlining that the country is an attractive investment destination.

Speaking during the inauguration of the Semicon India-2022 conference, the Prime Minister said India has undertaken wide-ranging reforms to improve the ease of doing business. He said the country has an exceptional semiconductor design talent pool, comprising up to 20% of the world’s chip design engineers. Its own consumption of semiconductors is expected to cross $80 billion by 2026 and $110 billion in 2030.

Modi said India is building a digital infrastructure to connect more than 1.3 billion Indians.
The PM took a jibe at earlier governments for not working in sync with the industry, using technical terms common in the semiconductor industry parlance. “In earlier times, the industries were ready to do their work, but the government was like a ‘Not Gate’. When any input flows into the ‘Not Gate’, it gets negated. So, many different compliances and no ease of doing business … but we understand that the government must be like the ‘And Gate’.”

He said India is working on ways to boost the semiconductor industry in the country and make indigenous chips.‘We have put the [odds] in your favour as far as possible through a supportive policy environment.”