India’s Semiconductor Push should Focus on Revamping the DLI Scheme

Announcing that India needed a long-term vision for building its semiconductor ecosystem, the minister for electronics and information technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, unveiled four different schemes covering all areas of the semiconductor supply chain. One of these was the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme that aimed at cultivating and building on India’s expertise in semiconductor design. Given India’s comparative advantage in human capital, DLI is a welcome change from focusing solely on chip manufacturing. However, six months after the updated semiconductor policy created ripples in the industry, the traction for DLI scheme has been underwhelming.