Indore (Madhya Pradesh): In coming years, India will be designing and manufacturing semi-conductor chips for next generation equipments, said Union minister of state for IT and Electronics Rajiv Chandrashekhar while talking exclusively to Free Press.
The minister said that two to three semi-conductor chips manufacturing plants would come up in the country soon as the nation was looking to play a big role in this sector.
When asked about shortage of semi-conductor chips during Corona period that led to fall in production of automobile vehicles and electronic gadgets, the technocrat minister, who was in the city to attend Pride of MP Awards function and a conclave on Digital Acceleration programme, denied any shortage.
“There was never a shortage of semi-conductors chips. Following corona there was an acceleration of digitalisation. This led to a sudden rise in demand of these chips. At that time the growth rate of global production of these chips was around 13%. However, the demand went up by 25%. This wide gap between supply and demand led to shortage of semi-conductor chips,” said minister Rajiv Chandrashekhar said categorically.
The minister further said that following the demand and supply gap, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs 76,000 crore package in December 2021 for the development of semi-conductor sector.
The minister further said that soon more than one plant for manufacturing of semiconductor chips would become functional. He said that country was eying major role on chip designing too for the gadgets of upcoming decades.
Mobile phone importer becomes exporter
Highlighting the performance of the government, Minister Chandrashekhar said that till the year 2014 India was importing 92% of mobile handset for it's domestic demand. Now, India is manufacturing 97% of mobile handset of it's a domestic demand. Till 2014, the export of electronic goods was zero. Recently, India has made export the electronic goods worth Rs 70,000 cr including mobile phones.
