| | OCTOBER 202319According to the Electronics Ministry, the Modified Program for Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing was authorized by the Indian government in 2021 with a budget of Rs. 76,000 crores. The program intends to offer enterprises involved in silicon semiconductor fabs, display fabs, compound semiconductors, silicon photonics, sensors, semiconductor packaging, and semiconductor design attractive incentive support.According to reports, the request of Micron Technology to establish a semiconductor unit with a capital investment of Rs. 22,516 crore (2.75 billion dollars) was accepted by the government on June 14 in an effort to make India the next major chip manufacturing market. DRAMs, Flash memory, and solid-state devices will be produced at this Micron manufacturing plant.Foxconn has canceled a separate semiconductor partnership in India, highlighting the conflicting emotions within the sector. However, according to Noboru Yoshinaga, executive vice president at Japanese chip-making equipment manufacturer Disco, the fact that American players are opening up shop in India indicates that the tide has changed.Japan, which has businesses with strengths in front-end procedures and chip-making machinery, and India are expanding their collaboration. A Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries on fostering collaboration in the semiconductor supply chain was signed in July. Chip businesses stand to gain from the Thai government's expansion of corporate tax benefits. For instance, the corporation tax exemption now lasts for up to 13 years instead of the previous maximum of eight years for a company entering Thailand from upstream in the supply chain.Thailand is interested in luring businesses involved in front-end operations, like developing semiconductors and etching wafers. These procedures are thought to be more technologically sophisticated than back-end procedures like dicing and packaging. Thailand is also creating a domestic sector that unites suppliers and production lines for electric vehicles. A domestic EV industry would give Thailand an advantage in attracting foreign investment since EVs are anticipated to contain more semiconductor devices than gasoline-powered vehicles. A number of governments, including those in India and Thailand, have learned to pay close attention to how chip companies change their positions. According to reports, Thailand is considered a neutral nation where people can flee the Sino-American tensions.How did Taiwan emerge as the leader of the semiconductor industry?Taiwan has recently become one of the top producers of semiconductors. The US previously controlled the industry for many years following World War II. Transistors, a crucial part of semiconductors, were created in the US. The US also led the way in developing microchips by making them more potent, more affordable, and smaller.But in the 1990s, in order to restore its competitive edge against East Asian rivals like Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore, the US opted to offshore production to Taiwan and South Korea, which offered inexpensive labor. Morris Chang formed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) in 1987, and this significantly aided in TSMC's growth. Graduates of Harvard, Stanford, and MIT, Chang had good ties to the US semiconductor business, and American chip designers were his clients.Today, TSMC controls around 55 percent of the global market for contract chip fabrication, a share that is far higher than OPEC's 40 percent market share for oil. The Soviet Union attempted to establish its own Silicon Valley during the Cold War. Miller claims that they were unsuccessful because they concentrated primarily on extensive espionage activities to imitate American microprocessors, which ultimately led to the production of subpar semiconductors. ACCORDING TO REPORTS, AMERICAN CHIP-MAKING EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER APPLIED MATERIALS AND TAIWAN'S HON HAI PRECISION INDUSTRY, OR FOXCONN, ARE COLLABORATING TO CREATE SIMILAR MACHINERY IN THE STATE OF KARNATAKA. CONCERNS ABOUT INDIA'S INFRASTRUCTURE, INCLUDING ITS ELECTRICAL SUPPLY, REMAIN DEEPLY INGRAINED
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