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Tiny Semiconductors, Huge Ambitions: India Joins the Global Chip Party

  • Writer: Josephine Mann
    Josephine Mann
  • Sep 23
  • 4 min read

Summary

India is making a $20 billion push to build its semiconductor industry through Mission 2.0. Entering a global market dominated by Taiwan and heavily subsidised competitors, success will hinge on long-term planning, cultivating homegrown talent, and potential partnerships. The plan is ambitious, but semiconductors are set to define the next decade of technology.

 

Semiconductors don’t look like much. Tiny, almost invisible, and hardly glamorous. Yet they’re the reason our phones, laptops, and AI models actually work. A semiconductor is a material that can behave either as a conductor or an insulator of electricity, a small trick that makes it the essential building block of modern digital life. It’s no wonder the industry is already booming. McKinsey expects annual revenues to reach $1 trillion by 2030. Not bad for something you can lose under your fingernail.


India’s New Bet

India has been eyeing this market for years. In 2021, the government launched the India Semiconductor Mission with solid intentions, but results fell short. Now, a new $20 billion proposal, the India Semiconductor Mission 2.0, takes a broader and more ecosystem-driven approach.


The details released so far suggest a more considered strategy. One focus is on non-silicon fabs, a type of specialised semiconductor factory that is simpler and cheaper to establish. This could ease India into production before trying to match Taiwan or South Korea at the cutting edge. Another focus is talent. The proposal includes training more than 275,000 semiconductor specialists by 2030. These goals show understanding of the industry tailored for India’s potential capacity.


A Global Scramble

One problem India faces is timing. The pandemic revealed just how fragile global supply chains were, and every major economy has responded by throwing money at localisation. The US has its CHIPS Act, the EU has its own Chips Act, and South Korea has doubled down by partnering with its conglomerates. Taiwan, meanwhile, churns out over 60 percent of the world’s chips and shows little sign of slowing down.


India does have its advantages: a huge domestic market, design strength, and engineering talent. But it also faces weaknesses: patchy infrastructure, high energy costs, an underdeveloped supply chain, and the fact that training the necessary talent could take 10 to 15 years. There’s also the risk of global oversupply, as more countries rush to stake their claim in this valuable industry.


Why Chip Policy Is Harder Than It Looks

Other countries’ struggles reveal why industrial policy in semiconductors often disappoints. Manufacturing is iterative: the same wafer revisits machines multiple times, meaning that one issue can ripple across the entire process. Additionally, fabs themselves are enormous and complex, with hundreds of steps and thousands of machines, each generating data and requiring coordination.

Taiwan’s TSMC (Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) shows what mastery looks like. Its “gigafabs” are astonishing in scale, one in Tainan spanning 950,000 square metres. But infrastructure is only part of the story. A recent article by The Economist notes that the company’s success also rests on its workforce: disciplined, efficient, and, frankly, obsessed. Replicating that culture abroad, as shown in the US, has proven far harder than shipping over blueprints.


What Success Could Look Like

Still, there are pathways forward. McKinsey recommends that technology leadership, long-term R&D, resilience, and talent are key. For India, arriving late to the game, partnerships may offer the best way forward. At a recent expo in New Delhi, Taiwan suggested it would be willing to share semiconductor technology in exchange for access to India’s rare earth minerals. If managed well, this could be a successful angle: leveraging natural resources to carve a niche in global supply chains.


Dream or Reality?

So, is India’s new semiconductor policy a visionary leap or another ambitious plan destined to gather dust? On the ground, people are cautiously interested. According to a Reddit thread, surely the world’s most reliable information source, commenters aren’t dismissing the idea outright. One individual even claimed to have built five semiconductors just the other day, which suggests the talent India is hoping to cultivate may already be quietly soldering away.


Ultimately, semiconductors aren’t going anywhere. They are and will be a defining global commodity. The question for India is whether it can move from being one of the world’s largest markets for chips to becoming a credible part of the supply chain. The opportunity is vast but seizing it will take more than ambition. It will require persistence, long-term discipline, and a willingness to play the long game in an industry that rewards nothing less.



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