Chips, then chokepoints

The semiconductor journey is beginning to look like a policy bet that is paying off. Semicon 1.0 was meant to get the industry started, and it has done that with a scale of investment that would have been difficult to imagine a few years ago. Twelve projects with investment commitments of more than Rs 1.64 lakh crore have been approved, covering fabs, compound semiconductors, and packaging, with five units now in commercial production. Chip design has also moved forward, with 24 projects approved and more than 100,000 engineers getting access to advanced design tools.