India Approves $10 Billion Plan To Lure Semiconductor and Display Makers

India has approved a $10 billion incentive plan to attract semiconductor fabricators and display manufacturers, its technology minister said on Wednesday, as part of efforts to establish itself as a global electronics production hub. From a report: Israel's Tower Semiconductor, Apple's contract manufacturer Foxconn and a Singapore-based consortium have all shown interest in setting up semiconductor fabrication units in India, a government source told Reuters. New Delhi also approved a design linked incentive (DLI) plan to encourage 100 local companies in semiconductor design for integrated circuits and chipsets, technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told a news briefing.

Please forgive me, I"m tired

[IWantMoreSpamPlease]

I read the headline as "...lure semiconductors and *Disney* makers" and couldn't figure out how Bollywood would mesh with anything in the title.

Although the concept of an animatronic mouse in a Bollywood film does raise some interesting possibilities (or nightmares, depending on how well done it is.)

Fiscal support without reliable infrastructure

[laughingskeptic]

No matter how cheap the facility is, no one is going to relocate to India until they demonstrate reliable electrical and water services. Right now to build a fab in India, one would also have to build a water plant, a power plant, a liquefied gas storage facility AND run your own natural gas pipeline offshore to a ship receiving dock for your liquefied natural gas and probably build your own desalinization plant. If you do not own every single dependency you will not be able to stay in production. You also have to believe that in the next political crisis all of this will not be nationalized and taken from you.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

That's simply not true. There are large parts of India that have reliable utility services, and many that don't. India is huge, things vary enourmously.

Do you really think they would have a successful space programme if they couldn't keep the lights on at the launch site?

Re:Fiscal support without reliable infrastructure

[nagora]

That's simply not true. There are large parts of India that have reliable utility services, and many that don't. India is huge, things vary enourmously.

Do you really think they would have a successful space programme if they couldn't keep the lights on at the launch site?

Honestly, yes.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

India's space program is headquartered in Karnataka, which has reliable infrastructure and educated people. Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are also good.

Nobody is going to fab semiconductors in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh.

Re:

[dsgrntlxmply]

My 2006 experience in Bangalore (Karnataka): up to 3 power failures per day. I avoided elevators and used stairs. The company offices had generator backup on designated AC outlets.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

My 2006 experience in Bangalore (Karnataka): up to 3 power failures per day.

That was 15 years ago.

India's GDP has more than doubled since then.

Karnataka's GDP has tripled.

Re:

[jellomizer]

Companies go to Texas, even in mist of a massive power outage due to poor management of its electrical infrastructure.
Companies go to California, despite droughts and fires.

While infrastructure is important, the problems with India's infrastructure isn't really all that bad, like a lot of the parts of the world and the United States, quality isn't uniformed. Some areas of India has a strong infrastructure that is modern and well ran, while they have other areas where there are major issues.

Second time's the charm.

[Ostracus]

If at first you don't succeed [youtu.be], try try again.

Re:

[jellomizer]

It is difficult to change the rules of the game, while the game is being played.

Unfortunately, this game is called the "Race to the bottom"

As each country and municipality will try to offer the cheapest bid to a company (often going negative profit) for the chance for that company to setup shop at their location as it would in theory give people in that area jobs, which would create more tax revenue.
However the issue is a lot of areas are doing this, so the municipality will need to bid down further and fur

Re: Help the rich, won't help the poor

[junglee_iitk]

Please spare the humanity

Hard sell.

[Gravis Zero]

A big part of the problem is you need a LOT of (clean) water for a fab plant and just getting water in India is a problem. Beyond that, you really need a reliable electrical grid which is another thing that India struggles with. India needs to first build up it's infrastructure or build power/water systems explicitly to support industrial systems.

Obviously, the thing they are interested in here is luring companies and then spring technology transfer agreements on them (like China) so that they can up their own fab technology which is far-far behind.

Re:

[smooth wombat]

A big part of the problem is you need a LOT of (clean) water for a fab plant

Yeah, I'm having a difficult time believing there is sufficient clean water anywhere in India for one plant to use. I remember seeing a before and after picture of a large stream/small river some place in India. The before was before March 2019. Mounds of foam the entire length of the photo. Must have been close to five feet high from the water's surface.

The after picture was sometime in the middle of last year. No more

Re: Hard sell.

[junglee_iitk]

You wouldbe surprised how much you can do with $10 billion in India when you don't have to pay.

Re:

[stabiesoft]

I think it is more than water. Not sure exactly how much of a problem it is, but one article was talking about the myriad of very high purity chemicals needed by a fab. I imagine liquid nitrogen flows like water in those plants. And then the gasses for poly making, chemicals for etching, planarizing, growing oxides, on and on. I've watched as fabs grew from uni setting(microns) to what is sci-fi(Angstroms) over my lifetime.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

A big part of the problem is you need a LOT of (clean) water for a fab plant and just getting water in India is a problem. Beyond that, you really need a reliable electrical grid which is another thing that India struggles with. India needs to first build up it's infrastructure or build power/water systems explicitly to support industrial systems.

Obviously, the thing they are interested in here is luring companies and then spring technology transfer agreements on them (like China) so that they can up their

is this a good deal for India

[bugs2squash]

It seems to me that the fab plants need a refresh to support new processes every few years and at that time the vendors just go shopping for another sweetheart deal from another country.

Another Problem....

[Kelxin]

Anyone that has dealt with Indian software engineers, construction companies (in or out of India), or almost any other business related endeavor knows the lackadaisical attitude of Indians in a professional environment. When they say "by tonight", they mean in a couple days. "By next week" means next month. "Next Month"? Who knows when you'll see it. I don't foresee Indian fab plants being successful anytime soon, but don't worry, they'll have a good, reliable, clean water supply and stable electricity