SRINAGAR: India imported semiconductor chips worth approximately Rs 1.71 lakh crore (USD 20.7 billion) in the financial year 2023-24 to meet its growing demand, according to data from the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS). These imports covered a range of categories, including monolithic integrated circuits, memory chips, amplifiers, and other electronic components, highlighting the country’s heavy reliance on global suppliers.
The figures were revealed in a response by the Government during the Lok Sabha session on December 4. Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Jitin Prasada, acknowledged the significant import dependency and detailed the Government’s initiatives under the Semicon India Programme, which has been allocated Rs 76,000 crore to develop a domestic semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem.
The programme offers substantial fiscal support, covering up to 50 per cent of project costs for establishing silicon-based semiconductor fabs, display fabs, and facilities for compound semiconductors and chip packaging. Additionally, incentives for chip design include funding up to Rs 15 crore per project and deployment-linked incentives of 6 to 4 per cent on net sales turnover over five years, capped at Rs 30 crore per application.
Progress under the programme includes the approval of five semiconductor projects with a combined investment of around Rs 1.52 lakh crore, alongside support for 15 semiconductor design companies under the Design Linked Incentive Scheme. Furthermore, 41 companies have gained access to chip design tools through the National EDA Tool Grid at the ChipIN Centre in Bengaluru.
To address the need for skilled manpower, the Government has also launched the Chips to Startup (C2S) programme, aiming to train 85,000 specialised professionals in Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) and embedded system design at over 100 institutions.
As global demand for semiconductors continues to rise, India’s efforts to reduce its dependence on imports are expected to play a critical role in achieving self-reliance in the high-tech sector while bolstering its position in the global semiconductor supply chain.
