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India unveils $10.2B plan to attract semiconductor makers:
India on Wednesday announced a $10.2 billion plan to try to attract global chipmakers to set up shop in the country and transform it into a production hub of semiconductors.
The plan unveiled by Information Technology and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw comes amid a severe shortage of semiconductors caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to global shortages of products that need them, including new cars.
India wants to lure countries with economic incentives, including manufacturers with operations in China that might be willing to shift to India because of the ongoing trade disputes between the U.S. and China, Indian officials and business leaders have said.
He told reporters that incentives will attract companies involved in various parts of the semiconductor manufacturing process. India's government will provide fiscal support of up to 50% of project costs to eligible display and semiconductor fabricators, Vaishnaw said.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 29 2021, @06:15PM (3 children)
White nations should ally with India (our ancestral/distant relatives in the high castes) and send Indians back home as well. Much better than supporting China.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Wednesday December 29 2021, @08:21PM (2 children)
Why? They'll just eventually become the next/new Chinese problem then or are they somehow the lesser yellow evil? Better to invest it all in Europe. Replace their cheap human labor with robotics in Europe.
India and China can fight among themselves without us or our help. Nations of billions of cheap life butting heads will/would certainly be interesting.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 30 2021, @01:58AM
Kinda funny, that. India has diversity down at least as well as the US. Yeah, they have some people who could blend in convincingly in Beijing, but they also have people who could blend into any Euro location. All they might need is a costume change. They've got some of everything. https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/population/population-of-major-racial-groups-in-india/19834 [yourarticlelibrary.com]
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 01 2022, @08:12PM
I did say "ally", not invest. Of course, i would prefer investment be made in White(European) nations. I'm just saying India could be a useful ally for the Global White Nation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 29 2021, @06:17PM
Intel - first to bite? Or just a wishful rumor...
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/vaishnaw-welcomes-intel-in-chip-manufacturing-with-tweet/articleshow/88555642.cms [indiatimes.com]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 29 2021, @06:30PM (5 children)
From the only letter responding to this short post, https://swarajyamag.com/technology/facts-fallacies-and-future-of-fabinindia-efforts [swarajyamag.com] Note the mention of TATA, one of the huge Indian conglomerates.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 29 2021, @06:49PM (4 children)
This is the Enron clause. Much of the losses that Enron was hiding at the time of its bankruptcy was due to a coal power plant [corpwatch.org] in India. They allegedly burned $3 billion on it and lost most of that investment (and maybe much more). The factor that made it go through was a clause that the local state would buy power from the plant at 20 times [wikipedia.org] what was paid for hydroelectric power. This buy local clause got reversed when a new faction was elected to the state government.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 29 2021, @07:02PM (3 children)
'Splain this to me please. I don't see any connection to Enron's failed power plant.
The blog comment is about rules in India that force outside companies to buy from Indian suppliers. For lower-tech industries, this kind of makes sense, mandate development of the local suppliers (even when it might be cheaper to buy raw materials from outside India).
However, since there is no semi-conductor industry in India, a new fab will have to import most of the supplies, from high purity silicon (or pre-cut 300mm wafers) to all the various chemicals required. And of course all the high tech machinery, clean-room tech and etc required to build the facility in the first place will also have to be imported.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 30 2021, @02:08AM
The Enron example went both ways. Construction was by Indian suppliers. Similarly, where's the incentive to get in on this action? If there's supply-side restrictions, there will be demand-incentives to make up for it.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 30 2021, @02:30AM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 30 2021, @10:37AM
It's more like the major items were reversed for the Enron deal (compared to the blog comment).
+ Enron had a mandated market (India had to buy the power at a high price).
+ Blog suggests that Intel (or whoever) should be able to import raw materials and machinery with zero import fees. Sales of completed chips will be to the Indian market, at market rates.
Or maybe the better point is that India, as it stands now, is far from a free market. In my experience (over the years, most recent was last month) their controls on import and export are crazy, not only large fees, but also ridiculous inspectors. My recent example, a shipment of some samples to USA (for testing) was denied export permission because the airfreight cost (for a small pallet) exceeded the declared value of the samples. This was deemed "irregular" and the samples went back to point of origin for still more paperwork!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 29 2021, @07:20PM (1 child)
Apple puts Foxconn India plant on probation after protests over food and accommodation conditions
https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/29/apple-foxconn-india/ [techcrunch.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 29 2021, @08:47PM
Per other subject "What a stupid corrupt waste!" Foxcon does appear to be running a sweat shop. Foxcon/Apple are doing phone assembly and I'll guess that most components are shipped in from outside India. On this kind of production line people can be trained to do just one step on the production line. Given the very high import duties that India levies, adding value with final assembly in India (for phones sold in India), makes economic sense.
It's far from a fab where most of the operations are at least partly robotic and the jobs are pretty high tech. A very slight out of tolerance error early in the processing of a wafer (which can take weeks) may not show up until the devices are tested. Or maybe not even until later when the devices fail early.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 29 2021, @07:20PM
Try $102 billion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 29 2021, @07:29PM (1 child)
They should be investing in domestic infrastructure like transport, energy, agriculture, communications, not trying to bribe big tech into building another sweat shop that won't even employ a thousand people. Like most of Indian economy, this is a scam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 29 2021, @08:36PM
Um, this may be the first time I've heard a fab called a sweat shop. Some of the most precision manufacturing ever done, and good margins on the product.
https://www.salary.com/research/salary/skill/semiconductor-fabrication-salary [salary.com] reports average salary (USA) at over $90K/year.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by krishnoid on Wednesday December 29 2021, @09:09PM (1 child)
There's a lot of labor and not a lot of solid infrastructure, and many speak English. I think they should encourage people to set up software houses and ... I don't know, something that leverages English proficiency ... telephone support centers! I'm a genius.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by krishnoid on Wednesday December 29 2021, @09:14PM
Various random citations: the war [wired.com] over sand mining, state of the roads [fortune.com], English proficiency [ef.com].