India Developing 25 Indigenous Chipsets Under DLI Scheme to Strengthen National Tech Security:

With the modification of 25 chipsets utilizing domestic IP (intellectual property), India is shifting from a services driven economy to a product based technology powerhouse. Along with Military WiFi, high-risk applications like surveillance will also be covered under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme. This was highlighted by Union IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Key Highlights from the Minister’s Interview
From the interview given to Business Standard by Vaishnaw, we learn the following:

Under the supervision of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Bengaluru, 13 chip design projects are in progress.

These designs will be realized at the upcoming semiconductor fabrication plants (fabs) and manufactured in-house to ensure industrial independence.

“Ensuring IP ownership means safeguarding and shifts us from a services country to a product country,” emphasized Vaishnaw.

Advancing Education and Workforce for Chip Designing
To build a sufficient and capable workforce, the government has:

Provided state-of-the-art chip design equipment to 240 educational institutions.

Sponsored the fabrication of 20 student-designed chips which will be taped out at the Semiconductor Laboratory in Mohali.

Aims to prepare 85,000 trained chip design engineers to be trained in the next decade, nurturing India's technological capability.

If Electronic Production and Exportation in India have seen rapid growth in the past decade, it is largely due to the investment made by the National Government through the Production Linked Incentive scheme.

With the Electronics exports growing sixfold and the production growing fivefold within the last decade, it is without a doubt that the PLI investments had an optimistic impact on trying to eliminate the trade deficit in the nation.

The creation of over 2.5 million jobs through these investments have substantially boosted the economy of the nation as well and directly improved the citizens living standards.

The most recent changes made in the PLI have a goal to reach double value addition in the electronics manufacturing sector within five years from now.

The nation seems to have moved from self-reliant isolationism towards a proactive approach by becoming an integral part of the global electronics supply chain.

The comment made by Vaishnaw confirms our viewpoint stating, The new motto now is “Make In India Make For The World”.

In regard with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, the Minister strives to ease concerns stating:

The Act goes in full compliance with the RTI Act and the important rulings of the Supreme Court regarding personal data access issues.

In trying to balance privacy and transparency, Vaishnaw emphasized that, “He believes sensitive data in the public interest will continue to be accessible”.