Tata Technologies’ CEO Puts India In The Semiconductor Spotlight

As focus turns to a new cooperation between BRIC nations as a result of Western sanctions on Russia, some are also asking whether or not India is going to be a key player in the new global semiconductor industry. 

Raja Manickam, CEO of Tata Technologies was out this week making the case for India and Southeast Asia as a destination for chipmakers, according to Nikkei. His case is that the country has an attractive location with easy access to shipping routes. 

“It’s always location, location and location,” Raja said this week while talking at a semiconductor conference organized by the SEMI industry association. He criticized where semi manufacturing currently takes place in Asia, calling the area prone to “geopolitical worries” and “natural disasters”.

Taiwan and South Korea are currently the two leading players in the industry and both countries face renewed tensions with China and North Korea, the report points out. 

The Indian government has already put into place a $10 billion incentive program to develop a semiconductor ecosystem. 

Raja continued: “The government has done its part and the respective states are also competing with their own incentive packages. It is on the part of the Indian private sector to step up.”

He also made his case for the industry needing India just as much as India could use the productive capacity: “Many big semiconductor [companies] have research and development based in India, so it’s only logical for the research centers to be surrounded by manufacturing plants.”

He pointed out that India “offers a massive end-user market”.

Loy Hwee Chuan, executive director for telecommunications, media and technology at Singapore’s DBS Bank, was in agreeance with Raja. Chuan said: “[The] overall semiconductor market in India is expected to grow at [an] 18.8% compound annual growth rate, reaching $64 billion in 2026. We would be able to see more investments in India and Southeast Asia as manufacturers adopt the ‘China plus one’ strategy.”

Raja concluded: “When Tata does something, its usually huge and Tata Sons Chairman Chandra (Natarajan Chandrasekaran) has already signaled that semiconductors is going to be one of his key priorities.”