US, Taiwanese companies apply for manufacturing semiconductors in India: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Companies from the United States (US), Taiwan, and some European countries have shown interest in setting up semiconductor manufacturing units in India, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.

Addressing a press conference, Chandrasekhar said, “Can’t comment on how many Taiwanese companies are coming here or how many are not. That you will know after the advisory committee finishes evaluating the proposals that you must have read in the media. There are some Taiwanese companies that have applied there are some Taiwanese companies that are showing interest in further applying. But the chip business or the semiconductor mission has declared that India is open for business and investment from all parts of the semiconductor ecosystem.”

“So it is not just Taiwanese companies, it’s also the Americans and it’s also the Europeans and all of that, so I can’t give you a precise number in that, excepting to say, I think all of the chip companies all of the geographies will see chip companies in semiconductor companies look at India very actively,” he said.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) has a 53 per cent market share of the global foundry semiconductor industry.

Later talking to ANI, Chandrashekhar said, “We have got proposals from many countries for semiconductors. The proposal was very complex. Evaluation and analysis of the proposals is going on. It will come out soon after advisory committee finishes evaluating the proposals.”

Responding to the media reports that govt is thinking of banning Chinese mobile phones under Rs 12,000 price range, Minister said, “We don’t have any such proposal. Our aim is to support Indian brands and Indian brands must have market share and presence. Those who do unfair trade practices and work against the Indian brands and companies we will take action against them.”

Earlier, the minister released a report by ICRIER titled ‘Globalise to Localise: Exporting at Scale and Deepening the Ecosystem are Vital to Higher Domestic Value Addition’.

After releasing the report, the minister said the value chains of electronics around the world post COVID are going through major changes which give us an opportunity to reach $120 billion export target.”