TWIN PEAKS: FROM GANDHI'S CHARKHA TO MODI'S CHIP

MAHATMA Gandhi's charkha spun the history of India's independence revolution, leading to political liberation.

- S VAIDHYASUBRAMANIAM

It was not only a symbol of free India but also a hope for a self-reliant, socio-economically developed India, giving birth to one of India's iconic symbols of swadeshi, the khadi industry. The Sabarmati Ashram birth of khadi in 1918 took an institutional shape in 1924 when the All India Khadi Board was established. Exactly 100 years later, Viksit Bharat@2047's version of self-reliance has arrived with a difference. The hand-charkha is replaced by a hi-tech chip.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foundation-laying function for three semiconductor plants in Dholera and Sanand in Gujarat, and in Assam's Morigaon is a west-to-east sweep of India's emerging role in this critical global asset.

Chris Miller's Chip Wars (2022) traces the evolution of the global chip manufacturing industry shaped by geopolitical, technical and economic forces, making it the cornerstone of a transformational economy. The Covid times saw turbulence in the chip supply chain that shook the automobile, hi-tech and consumer electronics industries, shifting the headlines from the end product to the core chip component. Post-COVID, the global chip manufacturing industry is experiencing America's semiconductor tech rivalry with China and China's deepening of local chip manufacturing and supplies industry. Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are also re-calibrating their chip competence to the emerging global order.