Summary:
Bengaluru, Apr 29 (PTI) Asserting that the government has put in place a supportive policy environment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged the industry to make India a semiconductor hub of the world based on the principles of high technology, high quality and high reliability.
In his inaugural address at the Semicon India-2022 conference here, Modi said the country has the appetite for "technology and risk-taking" and emphasised that hard work has been done over the last few years to create an environment that encourages growth.
India"s own consumption of semiconductors is expected to cost USD 80 billion by 2026 and USD 110 billion by 2030, he noted.
Highlighting that the country has an exceptional semiconductor design talent pool, which makes up for up to 20 per cent of the world"s semiconductor design engineers, he said, "It is our collective aim to establish India as one of the key partners in global semiconductor supply chains".
"We want to work in this direction based on the principle of high tech, high quality and high reliability," Modi said.
The prime minister took a jibe at earlier governments for not working in sync with the industry by mentioning "Not Gate" and "And Gate" -- technical terms that are 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".
"While the industry works hard and the government must work harder.
I would like to assure you that we will continue to support the industry in future as well," Modi said.
Generally, "Not Gate" refers to doing the opposite of the command received while "And Gate" implies combining two commands received for generating high output.
India is working on ways to boost the semiconductor industry in the country and make indigenous semiconductors.
"We have put the urge in your favour as far as possible through a supportive policy environment.
We have shown that India means business.
"Now it is over to you.