Ushering a Semi-conductor Revolution - (E)
Semiconductors have become omnipresent in all electronic devices, today from cars to smart phones all use semiconductors. The government of India has unleashed a Semi Conductor Mission with a proposed allocation of $ 10 billion. The need of the hour is to have an India based chip fabrication facility as the dependence on imports is not advisable for a country of the size of India. India has a small Semi Conductor Laboratory at Mohali with modest fabrication facilities. A 1989 fire at the Mohali facility set India back by decades. Today chips that power India’s democracy through the Electronic Voting Machines are imported, but things can change. India already has deep capabilities in chip designing and many of the best chips of the world are actually designed in India but the country lacks fabrication facility. The new impetus hopes to bridge that vital gap as imports of chips by the millions to power a New India is not feasible. Today silicon rules the roost, but gallium arsenide and silicon carbide are already making a dent and India researchers at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru are quietly working on it. India is already a software super power and now with the semi conductor mission can the country become a force to reckon with in hard ware. The invisible engines of growth can be powered by indigenous chips.
