By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd) Former Director General of Information Systems, Indian Army

Semiconductors

Unlike the Chalta Hai attitude of its predecessors, it is credit to the present government that concerns have been expressed about security risks posed by the use of imported chips; IC or microchip or a semiconductor being an integrated circuit or monolithic electrical circuit of a generally solid chemical element or compound (usually Silicon) that can conduct electricity under some conditions making it a good medium for control of electric current, the conductance depending on the voltage applied to the control electrode or on the intensity of the irradiation by visible light, IR, UV or X rays. Not that the debate had not been on since long whether India should establish its own fab (s) — plant (s) for manufacturing semiconductor chips, which are also used in our daily lives as part of all types of gadgets like TVs, computers, cell phones, radios, cars and the like. Presently there is only one integrated chip fabrication facility in Mumbai IIT but with grossly inadequate facilities. The first one was in Chandigarh, which was destroyed in a fire some years back. Manmohan singh took 20 years to work out a new semiconductor policy, yet to be formalized, and only the Karnataka State is involved in commencing chip development in Bengaluru. What should have raised our security concerns decades back is that while chips are vital parts of defence, space, atomic energy and cyber security applications, we have been making do with imported chips with no capacity to check what malware is embedded inside.

Same with telecommunication equipment, computers ware, as we are not even producing internet dongles and pen-drives indigenously. Significantly China had 95 fabs as far back as 2005. That China would like us to continue importing chips can be gauged from the fact that while we tried to purchase a fab from South Korea couple of years back, China promptly pre-empted India by purchasing it at triple the cost. This would also indicate that the fire accident in our first fab in Chandigarh could well have been sabotage — most likely on behest China directly or through Pakistan. Now the government is reportedly considering a proposal to make it mandatory for the core strategic sectors of defence, space, atomic energy and cyber security to use 'made in India' chips to protect our national security interests. This would kick-start the much wanted indigenous semiconductor manufacturing business. But as it happens in India, criticism of this forthcoming vital decision is already being aired, like:

1. Establishing chip fabs are expensive business (one fab requires around US$ 5 bn) and they require re-tooling every two-three years at additional costs, therefore, India should not go for state-of-the-art semiconductors as indigenous development;
2. Sectors of defence, space, atomic energy and cyber security alone can't generate enough volume to justify a state-of-the-art fab;
3. The global chip industry being well established, China's state funded SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation founded in 2000), has failed to make a dent in the chip making industry despite 15 years of state-sponsored effort, and;

it will be difficult to persuade foreign firms to manufacture chips here as 'Make in India' as the volume required would not keep the fab (s) running to the required capacity. In conjunction are added arguments like India would need to guarantee uninterrupted electric supply, millions of gallons of water and import skilled semiconductor specialists, as if these are not applicable to other special projects planned under 'Make in India' and why would the Skill Development plan in India not accord priority to supplement and gradually replace the special semiconductor specialists? If China's SMIC is not finding adequate market it would well be because of the distrust on account of Chinese cyber activities. It is good to have criticism as long as it is not based on vested interests and inimical to Indian interests. Undoubtedly, a fab would be expensive but are we continue using imported chips at the cost of national security with the battlefield getting increasingly digitized, network centric warfare the future and domains of cyber, space and electromagnetic getting more and more activated. There are multiple ways to cut cost. Similarly, it should be possible to create enough market to ensure the fab runs full capacity, like making Make in India chips mandatory / partially mandatory for the various products India imports, as also liberalize exports by the joint venture engaged in chip manufacture. The bottom-line is that the government must get on with indigenous chip manufacture without loss of further time.