PPP in Semiconductor manufacturing
14 Oct 2023 7 mins Download PDF
Why in the News?
Six working groups’ report on framing the Indian government’s artificial intelligence (AI) roadmap has recommendations for public-private partnerships to make semiconductors for AI applications.
PPP in Semiconductor manufacturing:
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The PPP model would be leveraged to build so-called “GPU clusters”.
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Such GPU clusters shall act as masses of resource-intensive graphics processors used by AI applications, which will be made available to Indian start-ups and researchers.
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The report recommends:
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Fiscal interventions to facilitate local manufacturing of robotics hardware
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Building of ‘demonstration facilities’ to test and show off technologies.
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Building capacity in the robotics sector
About:
Potential of the Indian Semiconductor Industry:
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The Electronic Manufacturing sector has grown from $30 billion to over $100 billion.
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India has more than 200 mobile manufacturing units.
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Domestic semiconductor consumption is expected to reach $80 billion by 2026.
Facilitating factors for the growth of the industry:
Efforts taken to enable the growth of the industry:
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India’s Semiconductor Mission:
- Under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
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To make India a global hub for electronics, chip manufacturing, and design.
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Launched as part of the ‘Make in India’ Initiative.
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The mission proposes a $10 billion incentive plan with a fiscal outlay of up to 50% of a project’s cost to display and semiconductor fabricators.
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Four Schemes under the Mission
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Semiconductor Fab Scheme – A fiscal support of up to % of project cost on projects appraised by the Expenditure Finance Committee.
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Display Fab Scheme - A fiscal support of up to % of project cost on projects appraised by the Expenditure Finance Committee.
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Semiconductor and Semiconductor ATMP - fiscal support of 50% of capital expenditure to Compound Semiconductors / Silicon Photonics / Sensors (including MEMS) Fabs and Semiconductor Packaging (ATMP / OSAT) units.
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Design Linked Incentive Scheme - offer financial incentives and design infrastructure support across various stages of development and deployment of semiconductor design(s) for Integrated Circuits (ICs), Chipsets, System on Chips (SoCs), Systems & IP Cores and semiconductor linked design(s) over a period of 5 years.
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Challenges faced by the sector:
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Shortage of water and energy requirements.
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With ever increasing population and increased strain on water resources, access to water by semi-conductor industries will be a challenging one.
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Power outages and coal shortages remains a concern until they are offset by adoption of renewable energy to expand the power grid as the sector requires electric supply available 24X7, uninterrupted, 365 days a year, except for the scheduled maintenance.
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Need for Critical materials as raw materials for the semiconductor industry, as India either needs to import them or invest in domestic mining.
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India meets its current raw material requirements through imports from China, constituting 40%.
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Domestic mining shall take considerable time and financial investments.
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Requirement of vast stretches of land protected from natural disasters such as Earthquakes.
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Shortage of Skilled workforce apart from design engineers who are trained in Device physics and process technology required for fabricating and manufacturing chips.
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Building a robust ecosystem because fabs require a variety of high-purity gases and wafers to fabricate the chips.
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Other Potential competitors for India:
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China - It has considerable resources and political will
- Taiwan – It holds a virtual monopoly in the global chip manufacturing industry, responsible for 60% of the global production.
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Vietnam, the USA, and South Korea are also potential competitors.
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Concerted efforts with the right policy implementation and resource facilitation shall enable India to emerge as a global hub for semiconductor manufacturing industry.
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