In the circuit

India aspires to be among the world's top five semiconductor countries. The road is long

- SURAJEET DAS GUPTA

On September 2, over 500 companies and 15,000 delegates from 33 countries will descend on New Delhi to showcase their semiconductor prowess at Semicon India-one of the country's largest business-to-business, or B2B, gatherings.

Among them will be top executives of global semiconductor majors such as Applied Materials, Infineon, SK Hynix, Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC), IBM, Rapidus, ASML, Micron, Tokyo Electronics, and Lam Research.

Four countries that are key players in the semiconductor ecosystem - Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Malaysia-will be present in full force with their pavilions. Also present will be 10 Indian state governKarnataka, Tamil ments Nadu, Odisha, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Assam to showcase their semiconductor policies and incentives to woo potential investors.

India is a late entrant to the semicon party, arriving barely three-and-a-half years ago. The road ahead isn't easy.

When it comes to demand, the country is an important destination for semiconductor products.

Ashok Chandak, president of the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA), projects that with the market touching over $100 billion by 2030, India will account for 8-10 per cent of the estimated $1 trillion global chip sales.

However, in terms of producing wafers in fabrication plants, a lot of ground needs to be covered.

Most countries are working on building them domestically. Many are offering mega subsidies to attract big fabrication players. Between the US, China, EU, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, these subsidies account for over $388 billion.

There is a reason India has to seriously get into the game.