More wafer work

India needs to move fast beyond the back end to become a full-stack semiconductor nation

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NDIA'S SEMICONDUCTOR AMBITIONS took a big leap forward last week when CG Semi—a Murugappa Group subsidiary—announced that it would roll out the first Made-in-India chip by the end of the year.

The announcement came just days after the Union Cabinet approved four semiconductor projects, taking the total number of approved chip manufacturing facilities in India to 10, including the Tata Group's partnership with Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp to make mature chips. The latest approvals push up the projected investments in semiconductor projects to about ₹1.6 lakh crore across six states. Many might, with some justification, argue that the investment and the ambition is just too small to make any significant impact, but at least it's a good beginning after decades of missed opportunities. It's also encouraging that the government is giving final shape to the second phase of the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), with most of the fiscal support earmarked under the first phase already committed.