The Quint | One Year On, Should India Revisit its Drone Components Ban?

Over 70 percent of the materials crucial to India’s drone manufacturing assembly lines have been produced in China.

By Anushka Saxena & Satya S Sahu

Read the full article here.

The Diplomat | China Will Generate More Nuclear Power Than Both France and the United States by 2030

China’s rapid build-up of nuclear reactors is expected to see it top the global standings.

By Rakshith Shetty

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The Diplomat | The US Can Accelerate India’s Rise as a Legacy Chip Hub

Friendshoring supply chains for legacy chips to countries like India is likely the most feasible long-term solution for the West in the face of China’s dominance.

By Satya Sahu and Amit Kumar

Read the full article here.

The New Indian Express | New Telecom Act risks normalising dangerous culture of unaccountable state intrusion

Any law student can attest to the principle that definitional uncertainty goes against the core tenets of good legislative drafting, which call for clear and targeted provisions.

Read the full article here.

Firstpost | How India is moving fast to becoming semiconductor ‘aatmanirbhar’

The India Semiconductor Mission’s (ISM) ambitious goal to establish a robust domestic chip design and manufacturing ecosystem is gradually achieving fruition. The Union government recently approved three semiconductor units, including India’s first fabrication plant by Tata Electronics Private Limited, in partnership with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation in Dholera, Gujarat. Read the full article here.

Takshashila Blog | The Imperative of Open-sourcing Chip Manufacturing Processes

The India Semiconductor Mission’s (ISM) ambitious goal to establish a robust domestic chip design and manufacturing ecosystem is gradually achieving fruition. The Union government recently approved three semiconductor units, including India’s first fabrication plant by Tata Electronics Private Limited, in partnership with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation in Dholera, Gujarat.

India’s presence in the chip design stage of the global value chain (GVC) is sizeable and well-established, playing host to global semiconductor design houses such as AMD and Qualcomm. There’s a slight glitch in the matrix, though: despite a large pool of skilled design engineers and a growing domestic market, India has struggled to establish a robust homegrown chip design and product ecosystem.

New Delhi has launched initiatives like the semiconductor Design-Linked Incentive (DLI) and Chips 2 Startup (C2S) schemes, which aim to provide select startups and universities with affordable access to Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software tools essential for designing all modern chips.

However, a key hurdle for startups and academia is the lack of standardised and affordable access to collaborative research facilities, and critical chip design toolkits inextricably linked to the fabrication stage of the supply chain that India is focused on: Process Development Toolkits (PDKs). Read the full article here.

Transitions Research | Why AI Governance Must Contend With Semiconductor Geopolitics

The entire AI value chain (also known as the AI technology stack or life cycle), from data and algorithms to computing infrastructure required for training and deployment, is critically dependent on semiconductors. Different kinds of chips like CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs and specialised ASICs, form the substrate that enables the creation and operation of AI systems. As AI systems become more sophisticated and ubiquitous, efforts to create robust governance frameworks to ensure their safe, ethical and responsible development and deployment have emerged and accelerated. Multilateral efforts like the OECD’s AI Principles and the Global Partnership on AI, etc., are important initiatives. However, any serious effort to govern AI must also grapple with the complex geopolitical and geo-economic dynamics of semiconductors. Read the full article here.

Moneycontrol | India gains semiconductor momentum but the policy mix can be even better

On February 29, the Indian government approved three semiconductor units worth Rs 1.26 lakh crore including a fabrication plant by Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL) in partnership with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) in Dholera. The other two units include Assembly Testing Marking & Packaging (ATMP) plants to be set up by Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test Private Limited (TSAT) in Morigaon and CG Powers in Sanand. The Cabinet’s clearance of the three projects demonstrates its commitment to integration into the semiconductor Global Value Chain (GVC). The hitherto hesitant private sector has also exhibited the resolve to venture into an unfamiliar manufacturing segment that hasn't historically been India’s forte. Together with the US-headquartered Micron’s ATMP unit in Gujarat, these announcements herald a new era in India's semiconductor strategy. Read the full article here.

The Hindu | The need to overhaul a semiconductor scheme

The mid-term appraisal of the semiconductor Design-Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme is due soon. Since its announcement, the DLI scheme has approved only seven start-ups, markedly short of its target of supporting 100 over five years. This impact assessment, therefore, presents an opportunity for policymakers to appraise and revamp the scheme. India’s $10 billion Semicon India Program has had mixed results, at best. There are three goals of India’s semiconductor strategy. The first is to reduce dependence on semiconductor imports, particularly from China, and especially in strategic and emerging sectors, ranging from defence applications to Artificial Intelligence development. The second is to build supply chain resilience by integrating into the semiconductor global value chain (GVC). The third is to double down on India’s comparative advantage: India already plays host to the design houses of every major global semiconductor industry player and Indian chip design engineers are an indispensable part of the semiconductor GVC. Read the full article here.

Takshashila Blog | A Potential Strategy to Navigate a Fractured RISC-V Ecosystem

In the rapidly evolving world of semiconductor geopolitics, a new fault line is emerging, one that could have far-reaching implications for countries like India. The United States, in its strategic tussle with China, could be contemplating imposing export controls on (Reduced Instruction Set Computer or RISC-V technology.

Developed at the University of California, Berkeley, RISC-V is an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA), a set of basic instructions and functions that allows companies to develop microprocessors based on this specification.  Read the full blog here.

Moneycontrol | Growing US-China chip rivalry presents India with its geopolitical moment

In the US-China geopolitical tussle, 2022 was a watershed moment. In August, Washington unveiled the CHIPS and Science Act and followed it up with chip export controls in October, setting the tone for an intense rivalry in emerging and critical technologies with semiconductors at the forefront. The CHIPS and Science Act had but one objective: reshoring chip manufacturing back in the US from East Asia, where 85 percent of the current global fabrication capacity is concentrated. The export controls aimed to restrict China's access to advanced semiconductors and keep Chinese chip manufacturing capabilities behind the US by at least a decade. The controls also imposed restrictions on foreign companies operating in China, which relied on technology and capital sourced from the US. Read the full article here.

Mint | Our PLI schemes are in need of a coherent trade policy

The recent spat between former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan and electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw over the former’s criticism of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for semiconductors and other manufacturing sectors is part of an ongoing debate on India’s manufacturing policies. Rajan argues that PLI schemes alone do not add value to electronics and semiconductors, even though value addition is a key objective of the ministry’s 2022 vision document. It aims to increase India’s electronics exports to $300 billion by 2025-26 from $25.3 billion in 2022-23, and deepen integration with global value chains (GVCs). Read the full article here.