July - 2005 issue > Feature

By Priya Pradeep

According to an economic study by Goldman Sachs, India can manage a six percent plus growth rate for the next forty odd years. According to its projected GDP figures the Indian economy will rank third in the world by 2050.

“What does it take for India to be a semiconductor superpower? First would be talent. Yes, India has talent in all areas of design but chips are a different ballgame altogether,” says Bobby Mitra, MD, Texas Instruments. Chips require a chip off the experienced block of talent. The truth is that India lags here. The second factor involves the scaling down of the high entry barriers in the microelectronics region of the IT industry.

This factor has both good and bad sides. It’s bad because it requires heavy capital investment and expertise to enter this segment. The good part is that once a company is in and established, it is highly valued and it would be hard to dislodge it. The entry barrier is high because of the tool cost and the long-drawn cycle time to get the chips from abroad. For India to be a world-class player in chip ware design, the cycle time to get the chips from abroad and then getting them back to India to get it tested has to be reduced. An ideal situation would be to get the chips into India within a day after being manufactured. This is not a far-fetched goal.

The third factor is to have designers who are systems and application savvy. This front-end requirement is very critical if India has to make the grade. The numbers are growing but still very small. Indian IT engineers have created thousands of world-class products and filed numerous patents in chip design very critical for the companies that they work in.

Hence it is a paradox that the results, which are outstanding, do not have a supportive environment to nurture continuing progress.

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