"Rather Than Investing $10 Billion Into A Mega Fab In One City, We Could Build Smaller, Decentralised PRaja Manicka Fabs Across The Country."

Amid a global reset in semiconductor strategy, India's clean-slate advantage lies in frugal innovation, chiplet architecture, and agile microfabs. With no legacy constraints, we have the freedom to shape the future rather than imitate the past.

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There is an Indian in every chip,” I often say, thinking of companies like Cadence, Synopsys, Applied Materials, and TSMC. Having been in this industry since my days at Texas Instruments (TI), I can say semiconductors are not new to India. We have contributed across the ecosystem—intellectual property (IP), electronic design automation (EDA) tools, and even equipment design, everything but manufacturing.

We may not yet have a homegrown semiconductor company, but this is our moment to build that ecosystem. The industry is set to double over the next 8-10 years, and India has a unique opportunity to shape its entry, not by replicating old models, but by innovating from first principles.

The 'newness' of India

Being a new player in semiconductors is actually an advantage; we do not carry the weight of legacy systems. I saw this firsthand at TI, where manufacturing and product development followed a more traditional, structured path.

Today, however, we have access to modern tools and approaches, and we no longer need to adhere to outdated methods.

India is known for its services, and I also ran a services company. Eventually, I recognised that controlling our future meant focusing on products, not services. Take SoCs (system-on-chip), for example: companies like Qualcomm attempted monolithic integration—putting everything into one giant chip. But that drove up cost, reduced yield, and customers disliked being locked into a single vendor.

Now the industry is shifting towards chiplets, which are modular components optimised for different processes and integrated at the package level. This approach allows greater flexibility, improved yields, and fosters innovation across various system elements.

India, unencumbered by legacy baggage, is well positioned to adopt this model.

Frugal engineering and teamwork