India Has Chip Dreams. What It Needs Is a Strategy
Aiming for self-reliance is a fool’s errand. The country should be looking to invest in areas where it has a comparative advantage.
No country is an island when it comes to chips.
Photographer: I-Hwa Cheng/Bloomberg
Across the world, countries are spending wagonloads of taxpayer money to develop or support their semiconductor industries. This pipeline of cash has yielded some successes and some failures; the difference is usually down to how strategically the money has been spent. The Indian government, which has also loosened its purse strings, needs to figure out a strategy — and soon.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, federal budgets have generally been pretty stingy with subsidies. But $11 billion has already been set aside, and largely allocated, to various chip-related projects. News emerged last week that another $5 billion to $10 billion might follow.