India’s semi-conductor import which includes monolithic integrated circuits or micro-chips, flash memories, amplifiers and other parts of micro-electronic circuits, among other things, have doubled in the last three years, reflecting the reasons behind the Modi Government’s concerted efforts to woo foreign manufacturers and packagers such as Micron Technology Inc, Applied Materials and Foxconn among others.
According to the latest official data, India imported monolithic integrated circuits or microchips worth Rs 37,354 crores in FY 2020-21, which went up to over Rs 60,000 crores in the next year and then further increased to over Rs 82,000 crores in FY 2022-23. Similarly, imports of flash memory such as Random Access Memory (RAM) for computers, laptops, smartphones and USB drives went up from Rs 6,728 to Rs 22,845 crore in the last three years.
The total import of these products including amplifiers and other electronic circuits, has gone up from Rs 67,497 crores in FY 2020-21 to over Rs 1 lakh crore in the next year and the last year it increased to nearly Rs 1.3 lakh crores.
Semiconductor imports from China
During the same period import of micro-chips (monolithic integrated circuits) has gone up from Rs 14,484 crores in FY 2020-21 to nearly Rs 31,000 crores in the last financial year, an increase of over 100 percent. The total import from China under this category, including flash memories, amplifiers and other electronic circuits, has gone up from Rs 24,604 crores in FY 2020-21 to Rs 37,681 crores in FY 2022-23.
The data shared by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the minister of state for information and technology in the Parliament showed that China accounts for less than 30 percent of India’s total semiconductor imports. It also showed that China’s share in India’s imports has declined from over 36 percent to 29 percent during this period.
Bid to woo foreign chip manufacturers
Semiconductors or microchips are monolithic integrated electronic circuits that are used in almost every smart device from laptops, smartphones, and smart televisions to automobiles. However, only a handful of countries in the world are capable of manufacturing them as it is a highly complex and capital-intensive industry.
In order to reduce its dependence on this critical sector, India and the US signed an Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) in January this year. During his first state visit to the USA in June this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged US chip manufacturers to invest in India and three countries Micron Technology Inc, Applied Materials and LAM Research showed interest in investing in India.
Chandrasekhar informed the Rajya Sabha that so far only one proposal of Micron Technology Inc has been approved which envisages a cumulative investment of $72.75 billion. The Centre has approved the Modified Semicon India programme with a total outlay of Rs 76,000 crore for the development of the semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem in the country.
Last week Prime Minister Modi assured global semiconductor manufacturers that India will be their reliable partner in their supply chain. He said that the country was rolling out a red carpet for chip manufacturers.
