The Hindu : Business : `Complete chip ecosystem needed'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 06, 2007
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Business

Business

`Complete chip ecosystem needed'

Anand Parthasarathy

India-based semiconductor industry's stress at ISA summit

HYDERABAD: `Fabless' is fine, but a complete chip ecosystem that includes design, manufacturing, packaging and testing is what India should aim for. This is the broad thrust of presentations made by the burgeoning India-based semiconductor industry — now 125 players and growing — on the opening day of its annual gettogether.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the Indian Semiconductor Association's Vision Summit 2007, Jodi Shelton, Executive Director of the U.S.based Fabless Semiconductor Association, pointed to India's edge in areas of chip making like platform and system design over competitors like China. The software expertise available here was becoming increasingly important for the global semiconductor industry.

The Union Minister of State for Defence, M. M. Pallam Raju, supporting the view, said that 19 of the 25 international semiconductor majors had design labs in India. The Ministry of Defence expected to be a major consumer of electronics and semiconductors in the Eleventh Plan (2007-12).

The West Bengal Minister in charge of Information Technology, Debesh Das, impressed upon the assembled chip giants the need to produce semiconductor devices that met India's specific domestic needs. This would help the country stop imports and become self-reliant not just in chip design but in the chips themselves, he added.

In his inaugural remarks, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, pointed to the State's specifically Hyderabad's logistical advantages to become India's Fab City. He informed the gathering that environmental clearance had just been accorded for the pioneering Indian silicon foundry project of SemIndia and construction work had already begun.

Over 300 delegates including the IT secretaries of four States and representatives from eight foreign countries are taking part in the two-day conference hosted by the ISA which represents over 80 per cent of the India-based chip industry.

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