Silicon Dreams

Key Highlights:

• SEMICON India 2026 will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, showcasing India's semiconductor manufacturing progress.
• India's electronics production grew sevenfold to ₹13.11 lakh crore by 2025-26, with mobile phone production increasing 33 times.
• The Semicon India programme launched in 2021 with ₹76,000 crore, later scaled up to Semicon 2.0 with a ₹1,27,500 crore outlay.
• 12 semiconductor projects worth over ₹1.64 lakh crore have been approved, with three facilities already commencing commercial production.
• India has joined the Pax Silica coalition, an international alliance focused on securing the global silicon supply chain.

Detailed Insights:

• Semiconductors are foundational to critical industries like automobiles, healthcare, and defence, as highlighted by global supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• India has emerged as the world's second-largest mobile phone manufacturer by volume, transitioning from a net importer to a net exporter of mobile phones.
• The Semicon India programme aims to build a comprehensive ecosystem covering the entire value chain from chip design and fabrication to packaging, testing, and talent development.
• Talent development initiatives, including the Chips to Startup programme, target creating a pool of 85,000 skilled semiconductor engineers within this decade.
• The ChipIN Centre at C-DAC provides centralized access to advanced chip-design tools and training, democratizing design capabilities across academic institutions and startups.
• The Pax Silica coalition seeks to diversify supply chains, resist economic coercion, and ensure critical technologies remain with open, democratic nations.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Semiconductor: A material with electrical conductivity between a conductor and an insulator, forming the basis of modern electronic devices.
• Fabrication Plant (Fab): A highly specialized facility where semiconductor devices (chips) are manufactured.
• Nanometer (nm): A unit of length (one billionth of a meter) used to measure the size of transistors on a chip, indicating its technological advancement.
• Pax Silica coalition: An international alliance focused on securing and diversifying the global semiconductor supply chain among partner nations.