Having missed the bus earlier, chip-making opportunity awaits India

A level playing field for new entrants is opening up

After almost fifty years, Moore’s Law — which set the pace for innovation in the world of computing and electronics — is faltering. The tiny chips that housed ever-more transistors with every passing year, increasing processing speed, will no longer be able to do so.

Experts say this provides a huge opportunity for India, which missed positioning itself as a hub for semiconductor fabrication in the early days, when South Korea, China and Taiwan took the lead. This was partly because fabs are capital-intensive and need fresh investments every three to five years just to address obsolescence.
 

“Semiconductor chips are