Context
Approved with an outlay of ₹1.27 lakh crore, Semicon 2.0 (India Semiconductor Mission 2.0) expands upon the initial ₹76,000-crore program to shift India from basic assembly toward owning the complete semiconductor value chain. It is a key design thrust on indigenous intellectual property (IP), strategic system-on-chips (SoCs) and risk capital for startups.
Context and Shift from ISM 1.0 to Semicon 2.0
- ISM 1.0 Focus: Attracted basic fabrication facilities, basic assembly and testing facilities, and packaging facilities.
- Semicon 2.0 Focus: Builds local expertise in chip design, cutting-edge research, specialized equipment and key raw materials.
- The Strategic Intent: Reduces dependence on foreign supply chains in order to secure critical infrastructure, media, telecom and defense.
Core Pillars for the Domestic Chip Design Ecosystem
- Six Strategic Building Blocks: Local R&D focusses on compute, memory, power, networking, radio frequency (RF), and sensors.
- Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme: “Financial incentives and design infrastructure support for designs that are linked to semiconductors such as IP cores, System-on-SoCs, chipsets and ICs.” Implemented via C-DAC.
- Risk Capital and Seed Money: Support startups and MSMEs by providing electronic design automation (EDA) tools and the backing for commercial viability.
- Inclusive Participation: To achieve rapid momentum with domestic enterprises and companies owned by Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs).
India’s Human Capital being leveraged
- Talent Advantage: India currently has about 20% of the world’s top semiconductor design talent with local engineers working on the next generation 2nm and 3nm process nodes.
- Manpower Scaling: Targets to produce 1 lakh skilled design engineers to serve Design Centers across the globe and country.
Strategic Significance for India
- Technological Sovereignty: India can develop its own chip architecture, making their defense networks, telecommunications (5G/6G) and space systems immune to malicious supply chain vulnerabilities or hardware Trojans.
- Moving Up the Value Chain: Capturing the high-margin design phase gives India a way to get away from low-margin consumer assembly and become a high value technology provider.
- Economic Resilience: Enhancing local supply chain resilience to protect India’s digital economy from unforeseen geopolitical conflicts and shipping choke points.
Conclusion
With its vision of stepping India from being only a semiconductor consumer to a critical player in the global chip and design IP value chain Semicon 2.0 succeeds. The government should not only fit this newly designed domestic intellectual property into the upcoming local manufacturing nodes but also integrate them seamlessly. This will help develop a strong multi-decades technology ecosystem.
Source: The Indian Express
UPSC Practice Question
Q. Discuss the significance of Semicon 2.0 for India’s semiconductor self-reliance.
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