Amitabh Kant On Why It Is "Dangerous" To Rely Solely On Chip Imports

The Rs 76,000 crore "Semiconductor Mission" of the government is a critical move in view of possible Chinese control of the semiconductor market, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant told NDTV in an exclusive interview today. Speaking at the "NDTV World Summit", Mr Kant said it is a very risky proposition for countries to be dependent on chip manufacturers from abroad. 

Calling the government's Semiconductor Mission a "most dynamic measure", he said it would be transformational in the years to come.
To explain this, he referred to a book on "chips war" by Chris Miller. "It says if China were to annex Taiwan tomorrow, it would control automobiles, batteries, defence and aerospace," he said.  

"Because the whole world will be running on chips. That's why for countries to be totally dependent on chip manufacturing from abroad is a dangerous proposition and therefore India must build its own ecosystem because we are a very large consumer of automobiles, of mobiles... every Indian has a smartphone and you need chips for that," he said.

Even now, global supply chains across the world are badly disrupted because the US imposed huge duty on imports from China, he said -- 100 per cent on electric vehicles, 50 per cent on batteries, on solar imports, to name a few.

The logic US applies is that China subsidises manufacturing, their government supports it. "Therefore they are doing extra production to penetrate global markets and that is why China is controlling 70 per cent EV market, 75 per cent of solar market, 74 per cent of the battery market... So we must put an end to this power supply on global market," he added.  

Semiconductor is a foundational industry and semiconductor chips are used in medical instruments, mobile phones, laptops, cars, trucks, trains, televisions and practically every device. India's semiconductor-related market will reach 64 billion dollars in 2026, nearly triple the size in 2019.

Earlier today, participating in the Summit, Mark Mobius, the founder of Mobius Capital Partners LLP, expressed hope that India would be tomorrow's leader in semiconductor production, given its strong software base and the availability of labour. 

The government is working towards making the country the next big semiconductor hub. The Central government has cleared five semiconductor manufacturing proposals, with a total combined investment of around Rs 1.52 lakh crore.