October - 2010 issue > Business

By Ganapathy Subramaniam

Abstract

The worldwide semiconductor market is around $275 billion, and the India market is around $8 billion. The world market is expected to grow in double digit CAGR for the next several years, but sadly Indian chip companies have negligible share in this. Worldwide, semiconductor market, which once used to be dominated by IDM (integrated device manufacturers), i.e. companies that had their captive manufacturing units like Intel and Texas Instruments ( fabrication plant) are now losing some of their share to fab-less semiconductor companies like Qualcomm and Broadcom [companies, which rely on external manufacturing plants (fabs) like TSMC, Global Foundry, and SMIC]. Most of the policies in India are towards encouraging IT industry and manufacturing industry, which are service oriented and employ a large number of people. This article outlines the policy changes that need to be done to encourage fab-less semiconductor companies in India, which also would result in intellectual property creation and ownership, both of which are must for a stronger India.

Semiconductor Industry in India

The private semiconductor industry is approximately 25 years old in India, with Texas Instruments starting its office in Bangalore in 1985. SCL (which belongs to the government of India) also designed and fabricated ICs in India. There are an estimated 10,000+ people working in the area of VLSI design in India. Many multinationals create worldclass products from India. Almost all the top US, European, and Japanese SC companies have their subsidiaries in India. Apart from the MNC’s there are semiconductor startups like Redpine systems and Hellosoft, which are headquartered in the US (some in Europe) but with bulk of their engineering in India. There is a handful of Indian semiconductor companies doing products or intellectual property licensing. Cosmic Circuits is one of them, which is focused on intellectual property licensing and has some analog ASICs in production. There is a decent number of Indian companies like KPIT Cummins, Mindtree, Wipro, and HCL that are engaged in semiconductor services.

Clearly, there is talent in India to create a worldclass semiconductor company. When demand in local market happens, it is believed that the local talent and also Indians with semiconductor experience abroad will return to India and create successful semiconductor companies.

If you have more query about magazine please send mail to

May 12	April 12	March 12	Feb 12