Govt's policy to build semiconductor ecosystem improves on earlier attempts

Vaishnaw said the government is offering global players something competitors cannot match and that is brain power

Can India blaze into the select club of countries that have semiconductor fab units? Last week, the Cabinet cleared an ambitious $10-billion incentive package to do just that. The government’s intention is to create a complete semiconductor ecosystem — fabs, home-grown chip design, outsourced semiconductor and testing (OSAT) facilities and compound semiconductor plants.     

If the fab plant takes off, India could join the list of Asian countries — Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and China — that currently control three-fourths of the world’s fab capacity (US is far behind with a 13 per cent share).  

The policy is ambitious. It offers