Semiconductors

Background and evolution

Semiconductors became the base of modern electronics after the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs in 1947 and the integrated circuit in 1958–59. Moore's law, the observation that the number of transistors on a chip doubles roughly every two years, guided decades of progress. Over time, the industry divided into specialised stages: design (where firms such as Nvidia and Qualcomm lead), fabrication in costly plants called fabs (dominated by TSMC in Taiwan, Samsung in South Korea and Intel), equipment (such as ASML of the Netherlands for lithography), and assembly, testing and packaging, much of it in East and Southeast Asia.

India set up the Semi-Conductor Complex Limited at Mohali in 1984, but a fire in 1989 and limited investment held it back. India became a major hub for chip design, with many global firms running design centres in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Noida, but it had no large commercial fab. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the risks of concentrated supply, as chip shortages halted car production worldwide. Rising tensions between the United States and China, and export controls on advanced chips, further pushed countries to build supply chains. India launched the India Semiconductor Mission in 2021 with a large incentive programme.