As Foxconn-Vedanta deal snaps, a look at semiconductors & 'design giant' India’s 40-yr chip struggle

[@ThePrintIndia]

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[@rishabh8766]

A lot of mistakes in this video, MB, GB denote storage capacity not computing power. Wafer thickness is not measured in nanometer, feature size is, many more mistakes. My suggestion is to take help of an engineer to go over your more technical scripts. I'd volunteer if you need.

[@destroyer-je4vg]

Where can i find podcast that shekhar ji mention

[@shashibhushan-wd4fl]

Bottle of glass is also silicon

[@rishabh8766]

@@shashibhushan-wd4fl its silica ei siO2. Not the elemental silicon.

[@North_Lights]

It was purely due to political management and decisions, not some random fire or terrorist fire that destroyed Indias silicon industry aspiration. Disappointing analysis overall, I give you slack on the physics part. Electronics is not you cup of tea, that is okay, you could have explained it without electronic and semi conductor part, but it is okay, you tried something different. But the big thing is you conclusion and what it is based on. This is what happens when you have no idea how a industry works, I mean not in general term, a manufacturing plant and no knowledge of this, yet you make some conclusion.This is what happens if you listen to other you tubers and make video out of it. Have you done journalism, have you talked to anyone in the punjab plant, and asked not about who started the fire but what happened to the plant after that incident? Nope, nothing, yet you made bold claim based on nothing. Just because fire destroyed some portion of the plant, it doesn't mean entire knowledge and technology disappeared. The engineering, the human knowledge and all documentation were not destroyed. 6 years of research and human capital was not destroyed by fire. What happened was, there was pathetic people at the central government after the fire, like chandrasekar , VP Singh, that is what destroyed India semi conductor industry., They could have put resources after fire and started multiple plants, and the engineering and human knowledge were still there intact. But these pathetic people were busy playing politics for power, and they are all totally incompetent. I mean, seriously, what made Deva Gouda a brilliant personality to become a PM in the 97? Even after reform, Narshima Roa also destroyed Indian silicon manufacturing industries. When China opened up, they straight away said to west you have to transfer technology to setup shops here, but Rao did not, but pathetically begged the west to send money and open shops and do whatever they want. It was purely due to political management and decisions, not some random fire or terrorist fire that destroyed Indias silicon industry aspiration.

[@sameerchilmattur2338]

Dear Mr Gupta, this is an absolutely commendable effort. Although there are some factual errors, they are minor and dont negate the overall message. Most non-electrical engineers also cannot explain this concept this well. Kudos to those who briefed u as well :)

[@ThePrintIndia]

Thank you, Sameer ji for your very kind words. I can tell you I was apprehensive but I'm happy to hear that I passed. Do keep watching and writing in...best wishes, Shekhar

[@prasenjitn]

agree

[@hanfucolorful9656]

At least, India can make 7mm chips now, the potato chips.

[@bulthaosen1169]

I think you mean electronics. Electrical don't study this.

[@parnamsaini4751]

Maybe becos of manipur incident?

[@harisundar8698]

Technology denial in the 80s is an important piece of history to remember. Its a deadly weapon and now we see both US and China using it against each other. Self reliance is the best option. Thanks SG for covering India’s semiconductor journey from the beginning, we missed the bus earlier but we cannot this time. 40 years is long enough to learn. Kudos to your effort in explaining about semiconductor and its basics.

[@vinay7397]

depends what you mean by "self reliance" as no single country can be at the cutting edge in all technologies. India does not produce silicon solar cells from scratch, and it will take years to develop an indigenous industry. The new advance in solar cells is now Perovskite solar cells, and it would be prudent for countries left behind in silicon solar to develop Perovskite solar instead. At the moment friendly countries swap technologies, for example the United States swaps chip making technologies with the Netherlands. Who are India's friendly countries, the West has a lot of good will to India, but this has been eroded by India's refusal to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is puzzling since Russia is now a Chinese vassal state. I suppose the reason why India does not condemn Russia is because no one in the government thinks the Russian invasion is immoral.

[@greenpowergreen7573]

One step later, every step later

[@the_class_apart]

​@@vinay7397 India cannot just lean towards west and be their puppet as they always treat other countries. India had a balance of state. Its a tougher road for us but its a truly sovereign and independent approach.

[@KSBond007]

@@the_class_apart Bull shit! When you crawl along others are even further ahead and India's lag will go beyond a point of no return. India must learn that India is not the center of the world and be humble enough to not feel entitled, learn give and take and not put cart before the horse. No country will give India their valuable technologies, India must earn that trust over a period of time.

[@indian9632]

​@@vinay7397somehow you forgot Modi's bold statement to Putin

[@kalpakiyer]

Sir, as someone who has a decent understanding of semiconductors and their manufacturing, you did a commendable job explaining it. A 6 year old can understand it. A lot of people have done a decent job of pointing out some points like tje thickness of wafers being confused with component size, and memory confused with comouting power. That takes nothing away from your efforts in bringing this content.

[@wszdexdrf]

If India had been successful in creating a state of the art process, it would have greatly impacted the trajectory of software and hardware industries in India. It could have led to many more high tech companies developing and utilizing the indigenous technology and also could have significantly affected the rise of China as well, since these companies (for example Smartphone companies) contributed heavily in China's relationship with the west and economic rise. How unfortunate that such huge changes can occur due a fire in a small building. Thank you Shekhar ji for bringing such information to light. If not for you, much of our history would be buried by senseless arguements.

[@rutvikrs]

"If my grandmother had wheels, she'd have been a bike"

[@MohitKumar-jf8lz]

@@rutvikrs touche. lol

[@double_courage57]

China mines most of the rare earth metals required for most electronic manufacturing. The cost would be much higher to import these and China won’t export it to India considering our relationship.

[@arbjful]

@@rutvikrs😂😂

[@indian9632]

​@@double_courage57rare earth metals are not rare afterall. The west doesn't want to deal with it bcz it causes an environment disaster that's something China won't mind

[@mayankbaunthiyal]

Thickness of a wafer is not in nanometer (nm). The wafer is thicker and close to millimeter. A transistor is made by combining n-type, electron rich, and p-type, hole rich semiconductor together. The silicon is transformed into n-type and p-type by infusing other impurities into silicon (doping), the process requires photo-lithography and diffusion. In VLSI you essentially mask parts of the wafer then diffuse n-type impurities and then mask the other parts of same wafer and diffuse p-type impurities to create transistors. The smallest possible structure within these transistors is called the technology node, and that is what this 28nm, 22nm, 16nm, 10nm etc.. is. The smaller the technology node, more transistors you can pack in same area of wafer. As the technology node becomes smaller the more difficult it becomes to dope or create these transistors because of physics (like diffraction). You see more defects because of this on smaller technology nodes and yields are generally lower, but a lot of R&D goes into ensuring these defects are minimized. Width of wafer generally is large (what you mentioned as 18 inch) and it has multiple die on it, each die can be thought of as a chip. So on one wafer you can make multiple physical copies of a chip (say a CPU). Larger the die size, lower the yield can be as you have fewer die to throw away. Also there are skews, some die run faster and some die run slower. For instance Intel Core I5 and I7 can be same design, just that one can only run at lower frequency. A lot more can be covered, but that would make this a lecture. :) Anyhow.. good episode, but many factual mistakes. @ThePrintindia.

[@va-ro]

Thanks ..

[@vrk420]

Great explanation. The current generation that is commercially done in 10nm and 5 nm. TSMC and I think samsung are the only companies that make 5nm wafers. China can go upto 40nm range . Apple M1 and M2 processors are 5nm processes based in ARM design. Intel now only has 10nm fab and they outsourced it to TSMC for the latest in intel chip production. ASML is the only company and is based in holland that makes UV lithography machines that allow these chips to be manufactured. It howver requires a lot more ancillary industries ex: make ultrapure water etc that need to be established that makes the whole project really expensive..

[@luciifer666]

bro took out so much time to explain👍

[@abhishek.paxsoprana]

I’ll be keeping an eye out for Print’s story on what exactly went down at SCL. It really could have become one of the better run and performing PSUs of India.

[@ajayKumarajayKumar-hr7sj]

It's important to know. Let's wait and watch.

[@dip-tree]

Mr. Gupta, appreciate the trouble you took to delve into this subject. I come from SCL vintage. I would have been among their first engineer recruits, but then it went up in flames. The general sense (the hush-hush truth at that time) is that it was an internal sabotage - the fire I mean. What is lacking in India (which will be a big impediment to the 'chip' making dream) is our lack of interest to work hard and make hands dirty. The kind of dedication and discipline that is required in fab-labs is tough to get within India. Our engineers (from the IITs for example) rarely want to work with discipline, and are constantly looking for short-cuts. They are keen to not dirty their hands, and so the software and design oriented jobs seem to be preferred far more. This will not work out in this industry. It requires absolute painstaking discipline to develop the expertise to build the high quality chips that go into modern products. My heart wishes for India to succeed, but my brain tells me we are a long long way away from this specific goal. Our engineering colleges should first start teaching real engineering to our students. Most engineering college faculty members have themselves never created products or done real engineering themselves. You can ask any young IIT student how often, if ever, they see their faculty members actually working in labs and workshops themselves. We are good in propagating a 'Brahmanical (don't make hands dirty)' culture in education. Let us hope for the best, but keep our realistic cap on.

[@abhishek.paxsoprana]

Hello sir can you expand a bit more on the sabotage/accident? Thanks.

[@rajx7120]

Why do you have to blame Brahmin everywhere? Many of India's finest engineers and scientists were Brahmins. Eg- Sir CV Raman, Sir M Vishweshwaraiah etc. Our first IT company was setup by a Brahmin. Socialist mindset and crab mentality, is the reason.

[@Akshay_p_kumar]

​@@baagi2187the only reason why most of our top engineers or scientists were Brahmins is because bright minds from other communities have always been denied opportunities. If CV Raman or Vishweshwariah were born into a lower caste then they wouldn't have become scientists

[@prayagkumar2242]

@@rajx7120 The reason behind "first-to-do-X-was-brahmin" is historical gatekeeping of education for other communities. Even for IISc, it took sweet twenty years before it got its first Indian director. Till then Brahmins were doing clerical jobs for the British. When European engineers moved out of Madras presidency, tamil brahmins replaced them because they did not face any competition. Not because they were finest.

[@rcc8506]

Your right. There's hardly a mechanical engineer in India who can repair a motorcycle or an electrical engineer who can repair even household items. Some theory garbage is taught in our institutions which have no practical value.

[@libshastra]

It is important to note that Foxconn doesn't have the expertise in chip manufacturing (They have extensive experience in packaging.). Vedanta's doesn't have expertise in chip making either but they have experience producing pure quality inputs for chip making. This investment pretty much a brand new venture for both companies. That deal has fallen however, doesn't mean, either companies plans have gone down the drain. Either way, Foxconn was looking into entering the chip market by manufacturing RISC-V chipsets. GoI is dangling good amount of money for RISC-V chip production which will help us leapfrog ahead quite a bit (work around existing licensing, testing and manufacturing). For folks who aren't keeping an eye on the chip space - there are 3 microchip architectures: x86, ARM and RISC-V which is new. x86 and ARM are proprietary, require specialized licenses for base circuitry ("other stuff" and "patterns" as Shekarji calls it) and instruction set from respective companies. RISC-V is a clean slate design and open sourced/licensed from the beginning. So any breakthrough made in the RISC-V space can be licensed and owned locally with very little dependencies on Western Chipset IP.

[@lalityay]

Who will supply the software,rare earth minerals and robots to manufacture chips. It’s a big supply chain owned by western countries.tsmc is a hub where all these supply chains meet and chips come out of factories. Vedanta is nowhere near to handle this.

[@libshastra]

@@lalityay It is not as terrible as you think. LUV is a different beast altogether, however the robots are manufactured locally. ABB has a huge plant outside Bengaluru that makes robots. Rare earth processing, I'm not sure where that would come? Because you mostly just need Silicon Ingot - we have two domestic players who can already produce that and excess processing capacity lying idle with Rare Earths India Ltd. We can print PCBs/Wafers even without Dutch LUVs, we have some decent players who make Lithography machines at Bengaluru, it won't be anything fancy but would likely be sufficient for anything greater than 30 nm. Software is the easiest to solve - there are openPDK kits that's easily available and getting a lot of industry support (Google and Amazon have their own Processor Design projects similar to Android). We have a good shot at RISC-V.

[@dhansukhhirani38]

🎉

[@egg-h4b]

@@libshastra bol

[@sivan8224]

Did you said all these when godi medias and central ministers celebrate that Foxconn is going to start chip manufacturing in India and congradulate Modi for this? Hope you had also praiaed it as great achievement of Modi.

[@TheOpposition]

The semiconductor project was moved from Maharashtra to Gujarat at the last minute, apparently to appease the Gujarati vote bank. This is not the only project that has been moved to Gujarat; others include the Airbus cargo hub. The Maharashtra government had already provided the land and other necessary support for these projects, so there was no reason to move them. I am sure that these unstable government policies around major projects are detrimental to the confidence of multinational corporations. These governments are engaging in these maneuvers for political gain, even though they are not necessary.

[@sagarpaul7934]

Ghanta, you need stable gov. ,n we all know mva halted every project the bjp gov started in maharashtra, which itself affected the confidence of companies to invest, our contract committed Ness throughout the country is very hallow, we are the worst in the world in contract completion, sometimes communist stops things by doings protests, sometimes there infighting bw our own political parties and over to our courts they give judgment basis on their moods not on law , there should be uniformity of judgment in whole country, some courts give a judgment , other Courts give b judgment and other other gov. Give c judgment, meanwhile the different cases have same similarity but courts give ruling differently of different states n there is lot of backlog and our regulatory mechanism our pathetic, I am telling u this with my family manufacturing unit, after getting frustrated, we had move our factory to the Vietnam. Easy labour laws, land laws , non- interfering beuraucracy and arbitrary mechanisms are good there. I don't have any hope from our manufacturing untill we don't go through with judiciary, beuraucracy, labour n land laws, easy approvals and police reforms.

[@krish-kn5dh]

Foxconn has told the government it wants to set up at least four to five semiconductor fabrication lines in India & said it was working towards submitting an application under the India Semiconductor Mission in a separate statement on Tuesday & this is latest news with facts they have pulled out from joint venture with vedant not out of production & all the haters & so called half baked geo-political analysts in youtube were fast ready to spread half-baked news 🤣🤣

[@pruthvirajchavan-patil380]

​@@sagarpaul7934cope kid

[@jean-louismenezes7055]

​@@sagarpaul7934the project was announced by CM shinde and deputy CM fadnavis. Was that the MVA govt?? Subsequently moved to Gujarat without any explanation.. And now entire project is off without any explanation from your favourite ghanta party in power in both the said states and centre. Maybe we can have a townhall meeting where crocodile tears can be shared by crocodile grabbers about how the foreign hand robbed India of semiconductors and greatness

[@Jkl62200]

India accounts for about 15 to 20% share of design BUT most of that is NOT by/for Indian companies. It's by employees/engineers of foreign companies with offices in India. Big difference.

[@sankalp6872]

It was trending, and some were SHAMELESSLY CELEBRATING the breakdown of this deal. These fools can't see past Modi. His haters CANNOT defeat him because they are too egotistical to acknowledge him. Whether Modi is good or bad is one's personal view. I hope for our own sake we don't lose Foxconn and get bigger investments soon enough. If you look at India's growth from 1954 to 2018, the post-90s growth has largely come from foreign investments.

[@rajeevgangal542]

It was celebrated because these things were expected the way all deals go to gujrat and govt supporters in industry who have no pedigree. Same as in Anil Ambani being selected for rafale. Parda faash. More marketing and sales not substance. Yes we need self reliance but not hawa Baazi unless we demonstrate success. Taiwan of course got all know how from the US to counter China

[@NewWorld413]

​@@rajeevgangal542whatever it may be but celebration of lose is just nonsense and no one can justify it, if they support india and want India to be really powerful country. It might go to gujrat or somewhere else but it would have been started the semiconductor production in india where all world has to be dependent on taiwan for it. So that would have been great achievement... so modi do it or anna hajare... it should not be the problem for any indian.

[@chatpapdi]

Aww.....cute, u must have never noticed modi supporters harassing, trolling, lynching people of a different religion, calling everyone who disagreed anti-national, pakistani, sicular, libertards, arresting student protesters, harrasing journalists, celebrating rapists (bilkis bano, brijbhushan singh), forwarding endless misinformation in totally unrelated whatsapp groups. Your nationalistic double standard/ feelings must be so hurt. 😩😭

[@dukhi_aatma372]

It became a laughing stock because of this Government's attitude of bursting crackers even before the deal is signed. If they had not made so much fanfare and loud talks at the time of signing MOUs, then perhaps no one would have criticized it so much now. Instead of calling out other people, advice your Modi to tone down his advertisements, and save it for the time when factories actually start manufacturing something. This premature celebrations has become some sort of a USP of this BJP government.

[@sankalp6872]

@@rajeevgangal542 Get your facts right. An MNC cannot directly invest in India in most sectors. Hence, McD, Toyota, KFC, and others have Indian partners. Partnering with an MNC is not easy. One needs deep pockets or the ability to get finance for the capital. Hence, all partnering will be exclusively done with the likes of Vedanta, Ambani, Adani, Tata, Birlas, Jindals etc, whether you like it or not. Also, Dassault-Reliance Aerospace Limited is a 51:49 JV with Dassault and Ambani. It is only for maintenance and manufacturing parts for aircraft. They are NOT building any Rafales. India got Rafales directly from French Govt in fly-away condition.

[@bishwasaha...]

Dear Shekhar Sir, I must say you have done really commendable work in explaining India's semiconductor history. Being a student of Zoology I can completely relate to your situation. Even I am afraid of physics and mathematics like anything. But looking at how you have accepted your shortcomings make me confident that it's okay to not be okay in everything. Lots of best wishes to you and your team.

[@harshgarg1448]

Asianometry is one of the best KZbin channel for business development in Asia. I especially liked their coverage of Indian Pharma, hope shekharji does something to that order.

[@Satish-ei5to]

Feel proud of india's attempt in semiconductor way back in 90's. It was also technology development and not just transfer of technology.

[@mastertrend4685]

Indian are really easy to pride.

[@petermathews1515]

From Wikipedia : When SCL initially began production in 1984, the company had entered into a technical collaboration with American Microsystems and started the production of 5 micron complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology.

[@kalyangoutham]

Sir I honestly felt that your description of semiconductors was brilliant. In fact I would pray that students have a teacher like you. That would take away the stress factor as you describe it in simple terms while making it interesting

[@RajneeshSuvarna]

While some can be attributed to oversimplification some conceptual errors need to be pointed out. Computing power is being confused with storage which is what 5MB is. Computing power normally is signified by the processor and denoted by their 'speed'

[@SudhaKiranGsk]

This is exactly what i came here to comment

[@akmsmartlink]

Frankly, I was expecting the real cause of the Foxconn-Vedanta fiasco from this clip. However, India's semiconductor journey was informative. Good Job.

[@sword7872]

I was also expecting to find out what caused the deal to collapse too! Pity that India always has a sad story about the past, and some other country was to blame. Wish it could try and learn to mitigate problems from past bad experiences and get ahead with smart policies. The fact that they don't tend to reveal real truth for project failures means people cannot learn how to overcome its problems.

[@theprovost]

If you want to dive deep into semiconductors and it's associated industries, Asianometry is a great channel. It has semiconductor history, technology and even the story of India's trials at making semiconductors

[@ajayKumarajayKumar-hr7sj]

I really love the channel. Thanks for promoting it to others.

[@jerrinjoevarghese]

Though the topic seemed to be regarding Foxconn’s snap, but the whole bit was about India’s past semi conductor industry. There was no much information on why the deal was called off..

[@petermathews1515]

Neither Foxconn nor Vedanta have the technology for the Fab, they were planning to get the ToT from ST Microelectronics. From what I read elsewhere the govt. wanted ST to be a stakeholder in the venture ( probably to prevent them from pulling out later) but that might have complicated things for Foxconn. ST is French, so Modi might be able to use some leverage to salvage it in some other form. This Tech is now closely guarded by West because it is the only Industry besides Mil and Aviation that the West owns fully. SG's retelling of past history is also mostly erroneous, colored by his political leanings. - Fairchild semiconductor backed of not because of bureaucracy but because the central government of that time led by Nehru was expressly against foreign private companies operating in India. - I worked with a few ex-SCL employees in the early 90's and the general consensus was that the fire was sabotage by Khalistani Terrorists directed by ISI. - It was unlikely the CIA was involved because the tech for the 80's plant was provided by Austria (IIRC). Reagan would have nipped it in the bud itself if he was so inclined. - It was stupid of Indira to locate it in Punjab in the middle of an ongoing insurgency. It would have been even more stupid to locate it in Madras considering semiconductor manufacturing require a lot of fresh water and Indira was busy fomenting another insurgency in nearby jaffna.

[@jkardez4794]

Sadly most of our patriotic students and experts who alone can make some contribution to this venture wouldnt dream of coming back to India .

[@navdeepsugandhi6476]

​@@jkardez4794as if the bureaucracy and political parties will sabotage them first for their own gain, we have history of that. Their is reason Indians abroad are successful, they have the opportunity to work without being grilled in politics and bureaucracy

[@petermathews1515]

@@jkardez4794 It is not human expertise that is the problem. Unlike software, most hardware manufacturing methods and processes are propreitary and patented, that is to say owned by companies. Just because you get Engineers or Scientists who worked in that field doesn't mean you can reproduce the entire plant, its structure and operation. As a matter of fact you can easily get the Engineers to come work for you as consultants, not only people of Indian origin but even foreigners for the right pay.

[@pascalpoussin1209]

This is most interesting, especially the fire that destroyed the Indian chip industry dreams. Possibly, today India would be playing in a different league if it had this industry thriving nationally.

[@sumeetupadhyay2993]

Just a small correction, 256GB will be storage power. Computing power is correlated with RAM size which should be of order 8-12Gb

[@rohitw614]

India doesn't manufacturer smartphones we only assemble smartphones

[@sunilbose1753]

Happy you have credited the Asianometry podcast. It's brilliant work done by the guy.

[@arindambaisya]

Correction - Fairchild Semiconductor was an US company, not Canadian.

[@snehangshudey1908]

Thanks

[@ThePrintIndia]

Dear Snehangshu, Thank you for your generous contribution to ThePrint's journalism.

[@egg-h4b]

Even a small country like Vietnam is light years ahead of India in semiconductor industry.

[@Liboch]

People never talked about these small countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam... actually the US imports its semiconductors from Malaysia mostly..

[@parthapratimsengupta]

Always a treat to watch SG , when he speaks about science. A few, obviously unintended ,errors were there but it never marred the overall flow. He used his favorite adjective ' humongous' twice in this episode, which made me grin widely.

[@ChristopherFynn001]

India somehow needs to ensure the majority of it's young population receives a good (HSS) education and then has opportunities for good post secondary skilled technical training. Sure your IITs and top Universities may be great and you have good engineers - but most jobs in companies like Foxconn and other electronic and technical manufacturing and assembly do not require that level.

[@ssandeep740]

Excellent explanation by Shekar Garu, backed by his capable team, and by many of the readers who are found to be quite knowledgeable about the subject

[@bhaskarroy6760]

Quick feedback - Design companies are mostly American or European, they have outsourcing centers in India but ownership is not here.

[@_prithvideep]

Dear Shekhar ji, I'm a long-time supporter of ThePrint and was very glad to see you cover India's semiconductor opportunity. As one of the few people in India that works in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, there are some key details that you (and Jon from Asianometry) got wrong. India's first semiconductor fab was actually started in 1964 by my grandfather Dr. Gurpreet Singh at Continental Device India Limited (CDIL Semiconductors) in Delhi. In fact it was Dr. Singh who brought a young Bob Noyce (founder of Intel, then at Fairchild) to India to set up their first offshore manufacturing facility. As you rightly reported, the deal fell through because of the Indian bureaucracy's tight production restrictions. Dr. Singh then formed a partnership with California's Continental Device Corp, an offshoot of Hughes Aircraft to manufacture defence and commercial grade semiconductors in India for the export market. Thus India's first fab and semiconductor manufacturing facilty was started in the mid 60s. CDIL today, still manufactures and exports world-class discrete power semicondutors (power semiconductors are different from logic and memory devices in that they don't store information and bits, but regulate voltage and current). It is perhaps India's only remaining semiconductor manufacturer (the country once had many companies in the field). The primary unit is now in Mohali, catering to the commericial, automotive, defence and aerospace sectors. Incidently the plant also shares a wall with SCL 😊 After years of macro-economic and policy headwinds in India, the govt's sustained focus and support to this sector will surely allow companies like CDIL to once again champion the semiconductor opportunity in India. Incase you'd like to get into the nuances of the sector for any future episodes, do reach out. I would be happy to help 😊

[@joewilder]

Fascinating. I hope India can get back into the game.

[@sateeshprathapani]

Thank you for your effort trying your best bringing information. I see the problem here... 1. India is trying and also very eager to bring the technologies from a foreign country. It is not just with Semiconductors. We can see, Vandebharath trains frim Russia, Submarines from Germany and Defense supplies from other countries. We have a significant number of PhDs producing at reputed Institutions across the various disciplines. We have pathetic post PhD opportunities for research scholars to continue research in India. When I returned from Singapore to do something of my own, it was so tough In India recently. My professors suggested look opportunities abroad!! It is the case with almost 99% of reasearchers who completed PhD in India. No well thought, risk taking, long vision research programmes who can percieved by these doctorate holders. I live in Germany. Across the europe, the research is well funded by public bodies connected to a level addressing directly the requirements of a small provate companies of a few employees!! It is most easiest step to start scientific entrepreneurship in europe collaboratively working with public and private partnerships for a researcher. When we look at Indian picture, for our population research instituions of good quality are just about 50 (i am being generous to put a higher number here ). Many faculties and scientists face funding challenges. I have done my PhD from IIT Bombay, worked in IIT Madras for a short time. These are fare comments I make here putting the ground reality. We are literally begging the technologies from abroad, behind the curtains in foreign land due to given opportunities ,these technologies are developed in many cases by Indians partly or fully. 2. Solution: we need to invest in Research and connect with Industries bringing solutions indegeneously. The whole ecosystem needs to be built. We can not beg foreign companies to come and put their industries here and ask ourself explore the cheap labour in our country. We do not have skilled labour too in all sectirs... Problem is more complex to deal with , we have world's 20% population. We need to train students while doing education also. It is not a sustainable way to seek the technological developments backed by solid research happen somewhere else and can manufacturing happen in India. We need to be self reliant. 3. Look at the enthusiastic, Talented Indian research scholors/scientists roaming across the globe, its huge! We have properly trained researchers already, but there is no further mechanisms exist to use this trained researchers who can help building the scientific entrepreneurship. Semiconductors businesses is diverse, nowadays we only talk about Chips! Its just a part the whole ecosystem is something big. 4. Only business men can not run the show. At some point we need real Indigenous way of doing things. There are sparks like ISRO, Vaccine developments , a good pharma etc. But , these are very small...we need to create a huge ecosystem of scientific entrepreneurship!! It is missing in India you

[@jkardez4794]

I doubt anybody in this rabid ignorant govt could get beyond the first paragraph .

[@87sharon]

Great short brief detail of india's semiconductor history.... thank you shekarji... But I feel the fire was more of a sabotage than an accident!!

[@ayushpathak9474]

Thanks print for making us time travel through the history of semiconductors in India, which most of us were unaware of.

[@meawwow]

I thought I'd recommend Gupta ji to watch asianometry video, but it turns out he referred it here😅 Great effort sir 👍🏼

[@ajayKumarajayKumar-hr7sj]

The asianometry video is really great. Please suggest others the channel as well.

[@k.k.c8670]

India's so-called engineering prowess is just a tale.. None of Indian universities are in the top global 150. And India accounts for about 20% of global chip design BUT it is almost all part of foreign companies endeavors outsourced to their Indian offices. Aside for some exceptions obviously, indian engineers are mostly people and process managers within foreign companies. Not hard core, hands on engineers.

[@Liboch]

The latest QS world university ranking has ranked IIT Bombay at 148th, the first ever a university from India to break into top 150. More than 20 universities from Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Japan, SKorea, Malaysia and Taiwan are in the top 100. None from India.

[@Erdovanne]

According to those rankings a lot of Pakistani and srilankan universities ranked higher than any indian universities can you believe that? Remember those rankings are done by the anglo saxons to attract foreign talents in their country. This is why china and russia have pulled out of those anglo saxons ranking nonsense. Anglo saxons ranking of things like human rights, media freedom, hunger index, etc are nothing but a tool to enrich and enhance their hegemony.

[@Gappasappa]

I am always curious to know what gems of historical information SG shares. The story of the fire at SCL would be something that I would be looking out for. This is called paisa wasul! Thanks once again.

[@agotti]

IBM’s 2nm is not at manufacturable scales. It’s more like a proof of concept.

[@pp_01123]

As chip manufacturing has reached its peak! After 1nm they need to work on quantum technology.

[@therash09]

TSMC and Samsung will be releasing production DKs of 2nm to design houses next year. As of now, their evaluation DKs on 2nm are already out and designs are being made on their evaluation tech. 2nm will be in production in 2026. 3nm has already started production.

[@rishabhpatel2051]

no teacher I've studied under could explain something so complex with this clarity and make this easy to understand.

[@victor256in]

Which madrasa did you attend?

[@egg-h4b]

then you should attend a better school.

[@vishalmani]

I listen to these CTC to get the gist of the ongoing happening in the country. I was expecting more details around Vedanta-Foxconn breakup.... But this episode was more of history than the current issue at hand. It will be great if you give us more details on the break up and the way things are going ahead

[@callarpit1]

For whatever its worth Congress seems to have done some really incredible work. Who would have known that in 83 we would have developed our own semiconductor fab? I mean one can only imagine the growth of India from the manufacture of chips, that we saw in Asian countries instead of India. We only saw the corruption that has been done by Congress, but this is nothing less than a spectacle, lost opportunity indeed.

[@ajayKumarajayKumar-hr7sj]

A note: I thought about this funny thing. The godi anchors do not have brains or else they could have made it a good point to again attack Rajiv Gandhi.

[@jacobthomas5988]

Truly exclusive and informative among few of the videos i have watched on this. Genuine hardwork and research on the issue.

[@thirdperson4705]

Right now with semiconductor fabrication technology we are in a similare stage as we were with cryogenic engine technology in 1980s and 90s but fabrication technology holds impact on a much much larger and wider scale than cryogenic engine. I hope Foxconn pulling out of Vedanta JV is just a minor hiccup and everythings going to fall in it's place as far as india getting hold of this critical technology is concerned.

[@Tinjinladakh]

people don't understand how much water need to make semiconductor, when water is very low in india

[@akshayhiremath4584]

Good coverage of the story. To a layman in this field I would try to explain the semiconductors and their role in electronics and so in computing this way: semiconductor (Silicon and Germanium) materials are used to build electronic chips that you see inside your computers and phones, these electronic chips contain a huge bunch of switches inside them. These switches are in the form of electronic component known as transistor. Most important functionality of transistor is to do switching. Now when it comes to power of a computer (be it a desktop, server or even a mobile phone) it is measured by how much switching power you have in the main processor chip. More number of transistors on the chip more the power. Manufacturing the chips using the semiconductors (Si or Ge) is very difficult process because of the compact size and the density of the transistors on chip. E.g. a main processor chip in your phone has millions or billions of transistors fit into it. So this manufacturing process involves very high end machines and skill to make these chips. In India, we are much behind because of lack technology needed in different phases of this manufacturing.

[@adityaanantjadhav]

👉👉👉As MODIJI forced FOXCONN to build plant in GUJRAT. FOXCONN and VEDANTTA faced problems to establish factory there. I was not believing this BUT after the announcement of MICRON to set plant in DHOLERA where 70% invest ment will be done by central GOV and rest 30 by MICRON then also GOV wont have any share in plant. By this we get that MODIJI IS PM OF GUJRAT AND WANT TO DETERIORATE MAHARASHTRA ECONOMY.😡😡😡😡

[@s.k.s9529]

The problem is our own companies are not investing in R&D .... Tje country has more number of quality Engineers but we failed to invent new tech.... this is very unfortunate

[@rutvikrs]

Why do you still want R&D investments? Why are people still stuck in the Rajiv Gandhi- Pitroda era?

[@jkardez4794]

@@rutvikrs You sound like a panwala .

[@rutvikrs]

@@jkardez4794 the problem is you don't want learn from the past or understand the reasons why it won't work in India as things stand. If you want to, let me know.

[@navdeepsugandhi6476]

​@@rutvikrsdo enlighten us then why R&D would not work

[@rutvikrs]

@@navdeepsugandhi6476 1. We skipped manufacturing. Manufacturing today has low returns but the point of it is to create an industrial society. A society of electricians is more likely to subscribe to complex services and engage in complex consumption. Further you create a network of companies, institutions and individuals that is constantly seeking backward/forward/parallel integration. Ex Asian paints has knowledge and physical infrastructure of indigenous production of paints, global logistics of materials/capital, a mixed workforce of low-high level expertise and 50 years of data. This enables them to successfully launch a complex product like interior design and gives them a base for future integration like getting into manufacturing of painting tools, proprietary patents in materials, cost competitive global painting services etc. 2. We instead focused on secondary education. We are already creating global level talent in every field from mathematics to mechanical engineering to social science when there is no native demand in India for these fields nor the global logistics to obtain cobalt from centa Africa/mentorship from the EU. It is simply easier for this class to migrate to places which have capital/logistics to fund them. A personal anecdote, I helped a student of Nuclear medicine get a research job in Japan which simply does not exist in India. The person has filed for 3 patents. What will happen to the Indian public investment made into the person? The problem with remittance is that it will be pulled out when the parent passes away. Real estate/ market investment will be liquidated. 3. The answer lies in a slow boring phase of two decades of making India into a low level manufacturing hub, using the profits to invest into global networks and international assets much like the Chinese in the 90's and then using the international assets to invest into HDI and R&D. Doing the latter first is like making tadka without the dal.

[@rijzone]

the reason to use semiconductors to make microprocessors is that doped silicon can be used to make transistors that can act as a switch without any moving parts, which then can be used to make logic gates and FAB and so on.

[@you0too0]

One of the most fascination episodes I've watched on this SG sir... Fabulous and so intriguing

[@urroshankumar]

It was indeed a great knowledge sharing in Indian initiative in attaining prowess in semiconductor technology

[@DruvRatee]

Vedanta’s greediness in profit margin and regulatory is a curse to India!!

[@fahadkhan-db6bh]

@8:00 I love it when you make an effort in the styling department, especially the hair today 💕

[@MAZEA413]

We should make semiconductors, chips in India, low labor costs, cheap energy, cheap shipping currency

[@sivasakthisaravanan4850]

To skip lessons on semiconductors 12:21

[@MrRaizada]

Few corrections : 1. "nm" is .... not the width of the wafer. Its... what is called as feature size. ie smallest switch you can "etch" on the silicon. Though these days, nm is used more as a marketing term and 5 nm chip technology does not mean that switches and transistors will be of that size. These days it is defined by vendors and they use it to arbitrarily define what kind of speed/energy efficiency/density of transistor gain you will get over their past technology.

[@prashanthvishwanath393]

Nice touch Shekhar ji, refering to class 11 also as PU. Very inclusive of your southern India audience 👏

[@patmclaughlin107]

In Andhra & Telangana, class 11 called Junior Intermediate. Those states are excluded! (One has to inject negativity somewhere!!)

[@subhrangsudutta8029]

Thanks for your explanation to non-semiconductor masses to know basics of semiconductors - it is really a fascinating story. 🙏🙏✍️✍️✌️✌️

[@rakeshmandliya782]

Shekharji you are jenious hats off to you though i am a semiconductor vlsi design Mtech engineer, the way you explained the topic with so simplicity i was never taught in my class the same way ❤❤❤❤

[@abani8177]

Hey Shekhar! It takes a lot of courage to step out of one's comfort zone, and kudos to you successfully doing the same. However, the segment on India's semiconductor history was something very interesting and probably unknown to many of us, and that is what makes me follow your show everyday during lunch, despite being in a different timezone! You might be a novice at solid-state physics, but you are great journalist and a raconteur.

[@MrRaizada]

Why is semiconductor fundamentally so important? And why they are so much more important than say conductors of insulators? Simple reason! Think of electricity as similar to flow of water in a pipe. Now that itself is useful but think of a valve that helps you to control that flow: Make it fast, slow or stop it. Thats what semiconductors do to electricity. It allows you to control the flow of electricity. Meaning, it can make a valve. It goes even a step ahead: It allows you to use electricity to control electricity. Components that use electricity to control electricity are called Active components. And they allow you to make all sorts of things : Amplifier -- using small electricity to control large flow; logic -- turning electricity on and off using other electric source and so on. Semiconductors are important because they can act as valves.

[@indermohansinghmalhotra3730]

The best; comprehensive & well researched program on semiconductors I ever watched! You are awesome, Shekhar! Please stay young as you are, never lose your steam! 🙏

[@joelbiju3628]

Semiconductor fabless design in India is very small, which means there is very little design happening in India. This is why a manufacturing plan does not make sense.

[@opq5474]

In 80s SEEPZ (Santacruz Electronics Export Zone)was established with some companies like Intersil making some chips. But that effort could not sustained.

[@randelr8638]

So nice of you to mention about asianometry channel

[@correctthenarrative987]

BEL Bengaluru also had a massive semiconductor division, that could have gone forward. No we dropped the ball

[@freudsilver3097]

To add to your explanation here, Just because a semiconductor conducts and insulates both doesn't explain why it is important. A very basic semiconductor attains an on and an off stage. When a certain amount of voltage is provided it changes from off to on and vice versa. So, a semiconductor is nothing but a very small switch and based on how we pass the signals and how we connect it up, we can program its state. These states are 1 if on, 0 if off. Thats right, these states of semiconductors are called as bits which is used in storage or performing tasks. On top of these bits, there is all that we do, that is programming.

[@GinzaGeorge]

The oversimplification helped me. Thanks for sharing.

[@nrtija]

Hi Sir- Fabulous effort in making this content. While there are few factual errors in the content, which has been addressed by others, I would appreciate your courage in attempting to making this complex topic into a easy one for all. Thanks

[@anilahuja1148]

I remember this fire incident. We were in providing Fire Protection System & were invited to do the work after this Fire. My personal view was we in India were not very perticular on providing adequate Fire Safety measures. I still remember the Architect discussing how to relocate pipes & fire points as they did not look good. Reson for fire can be anything, but adequate Fire Safety measures were not provided. I have personally visited this plant, done subsequent work & even after so many years remember very clearly.

[@tapemaj]

Really baffled as to why India lagged behind in semi conductors beyond 1983 .

[@libshastra]

Factories Act and PSU curse. Any Sector that becomes a PSU monopoly always ends up dragging progress and regresses into Luddite mentality.

[@mandarinandthetenrings2201]

You have to understand India did not see a future in "Microchips". Also, microchips where being pioneer by "video games" and that something that India did not want to get into.

[@libshastra]

@@mandarinandthetenrings2201 this is a perfect example of justifying PSU incompetence. Come up with made up reasons and excuses to shield basic failures of both PSUs and Govt policy.

[@mandarinandthetenrings2201]

@@libshastraLook, at that time the Project was being run by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi government. She was very "hostile" all things "Capitalistic" and went out of her way to destroy anyone in the India government and the private sector. Also, please remember at that time India was very old, many of the people working were not young and did not see what all fuse was about. But now things have changed India has a big young population that really understands and wants to have such technologies.

[@psychotormentor3278]

same reason why India never made any computer hardware....be it storage disks, motherboards, monitors, servers or even the damn keyboards/mouses.....India didn't have money for getting the hardware industry moving..add to it the fact that China was getting all the goodies in manufacturing knowhow from the US.. and we had a huge problem with getting the youth employed...service sector fit the bill, and here we are...

[@jaydeepgadhavi5465]

At 18:40, Fairchild was founded in America. Idk if the ownership has moved to the Canadians but Wikipedia still suggests it's headquartered in California. Please check

[@manoj_mahato_]

Ooo woow. India had started program for semiconductors. That fascinating history i was not aware of

[@gougoalmechatronictechnolo4764]

No just those famous big companies robbed by india government(for money,company management authority, commercial and technical secrets,and even the whole factory etc.)such as XIAO MI(totally lost more than 50billion CNY and forced to replace the management team with Indians ,and let India company as biggest stakeholders),MG Factory(forced to sell the factory at price of one tenth the real valued price),Shanghai Electric(after help India build the biggest thermal power plant ,India refused do any payment of the 88billion CNY and accused to the court,unbelievablely India court request them to give Indian company another 28.8 billion CNY),VIVO（3.9billion CNY）,OPPO,Liling(clothes),Foxconn;Vodafone(21 billion USD),Microsoft(70 billion Rupees),Nokia(208 billion rupees),Wolmart ,BWM,IBM(535.7billion rupees),Amazon,POSCO STEEL ,Mac Donald,GOOGLE,COCO COLA;but also most Chinese common traders had experienced no payment of rest money of the order at before, it is not good Choice to invest India or do business with Indian.😂😂 People all over the world knows the saying reflecting the reality:“All money you earned must be left in India,no way for you to take even one penny back to your own country!”😂😂

[@Khalistan_Zindabaddd]

👍👍👍

[@ns4543]

I’m a semiconductor executive. Loved your explanation

[@pradipthomas8779]

A really good episode. Learned a lot from it.

[@puneetporwal]

Wow.. what an enlightening episode!

[@sm_googly]

Fairchild was not Canadian. In fact, Fairchild is the grandfather of most American tech companies

[@hpssahota1977]

Dear SG. My day starts with the CTC. Yet another marvelous posting. Many thanks.

[@ThePrintIndia]

Thank you for your kind words, my friend. Do keep watching and writing in. Thank you also for supporting ThePrint...best wishes, Shekhar

[@anuragchakraborty8766]

As an Indian, I feel that no foreign company should invest in fascist India. Let Modi know fascism and bigotry has PR-ramifications.

[@rajbiswas249]

Bengalis are not Indians they're bangaldeshis. That's what bengalis think of themselves. That facist Modi made Gujarat an industrial powerhouse when he was CM. He even took away Tata plant from bengals singur to Gujarat. Keep enjoying your Rs500 and Rs20 pouch

[@rajx7120]

And who is in investing in so-called liberal Bengal, where voters are being killed in panchayat elections, fake votes are being polled by goons. We don't need your advice. Fix Bengal first.

[@vinay7397]

you are right, not saying India should not buy Russian oil, but why does your foreign minister revel in stating he doesn't really care about Russian invasion as India has it's interests. You see morality is very important in international relations, if India voted against Russia but still bought Russian oil like the European then it would be fine. Then again the fascist Modi probably does not care about Russian invasion.

[@petermathews1515]

@@vinay7397 The US fought a similar proxy war against USSR in Afghanistan in alliance with pakistan in the 80's. During that time Pakistan used the money and weapons US provided to foment an insurgency in the Punjab and North India that killed close to 20,000 Indians. Every week there would be cases where Khalistani terrorists would stop buses in remote areas, separate out Hindus from Sikhs and kill all the Hindus including women and children.At night they would randomly enter Hindu houses in remote villages and kill mercilessly. Those targetted were people from all walks of life and political persuasion. Non-Khalsa Sikhs like Nirankaris were also targetted. These were pre-internet era so everything was learned through print media. I remember an article with multiple photos in a very popular news magazine in India called the Illustrated Weekly ( now defunct) where Sikh's were being trained by Vitenam vets in North Carolina to send to India. Reagan did nothing when Indira protested because it was a private Rifle range owned by an ex-marine. The US direct support was stopped after the Kanishka Airplane bombing by Khalistani terrorists killed a bunch of white people also. In the 90's this same play book was used by Pak in Kashmir and tens of thousands again died. During this time none of the Western countries showed any sympathy for India despite repeated diplomatic entreaties. Rather the refrain from the West was Pakistan was justified to do this because India intervened for Bangladesh independence. None of these human rights champions cared about the genocide that forced India to intervene in Bangladesh. During these two decades the US, UK and China introduced in the security council multiple resolutions accusing India of human rights violations and sanctions. All the resolutions were vetoed by USSR/Russia. If they had instead passed , it would have given carte-blanche for US and UK and China to start carpet bombing India like US/UK did in Vietnam, Iraq, Serbia, Grenada, Syria, Libya and a large swathe of dirt poor countries in Africa. The US and West continued promoting this Jehad against India policy which saw fight against terrorism as human rights violation till Sep 12 2001. Modi and most of the senior members of his government and bureacracy, like me, lived through that era as common people. The opposition Congress was in power then. They understand the debt owed to Russia. Your using morality and International relations in the same sentence tells me you are naive. Regarding Ukraine , you should listen to view points from John Mearsheimer and Col. Douglas Macgregor. They opposed the 2004 Iraq invasion and the continued US presence in Afg. They were proved right in both. If they are right now, just like the Paks and Afghans in the 80's the Ukrainians signed up to be pawns in a proxy war. See what good it did Paks and Afghans. Instead of moralizing to Indians, Europeans should be thinking about the blow back in future from battle hardened neo-nazis in Europe where there is already a large Islamic populace ready to explode.

[@venupadarthi1045]

awesome as always

[@kushalsaitia971]

let me try to underscore the significance of silicon in terms we understand. because of its atomic number, so just like potassium, sodium, lithium are a class of elements. Carbon, silicon belongs to their own family and silicon is to electronics and digital life as carbon is for biology.

[@shyamuttam4407]

Very informative episod. Thanks Shekhar ji

[@rahulmallick1878]

Two points:We lack the pure science and engineering talent required to build semiconductors and we as a nation must question why we weren't ablto develop that talent pool?

[@opq5474]

In first place Americans were not interested in giving us what they gave Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan some 45 years before, now they were ready to give but we lost it due to regional bias .

[@nomnommonsterr]

I remember reading an article in 2010 that said it is impossible to have a 3nm chips because the electrons jump that narrow gap of inductors. It was said its impossible from physics point of view. However, 3nm is a flagship chip in a lot of devices now. They are trying to even develop a 1nm chip. This field dectates utmost decepline, dedication, talent, govt support, resources and infrastructure to be competative. India is nowhere near the standard that is required for a semiconductor manufacturing. Also, considering our track record with state owned SCL, its not very promising for private players to invest here. In my opinion, having the capability to manufacture a jet engine and a semiconductor chip (that are competation worthy) is what sets a "developed country" status.

[@AB-tx5zm]

Very very insightful..!! 👍👍

[@devgupta8815]

Shekhar : Why is it that India, even with so many more IITs ( one in almost every village ! ) these days still can’t develop technologies on its own ? The simple answer is that even highly technical projects like Semiconductor Mfr. gets dominated by non technical IAS or fake Engr.s ( actually IAS who never practiced any Engr. ) who keep real Experts out so the IAS can use these strategic Projects to get more visibility, further their own careers, even if that delays & crashes those Projects. That is exactly what has been happening w/ the Semiconductor Mfr. initiative. Over 2 yrs ago I had given Modi a proposal to start w/ what India already has ( SCL Mohalli ) but turn it into a Boot Camp to train old & new Staff how to develop new technologies & products on their own and make it world class capable of competing & exporting. Teach then the most adv. methods of semiconductor R&D that we had developed at Motorola & Intel in the US, technologies that are now used to mfr. the most powerful chips for AI etc., But the whole proposal got hijacked by the ignorant but greedy IAS ( incl. the Minister ) of MEITY. The reason the Vande Bharat ( original name Super Shatabdi or SS ) could be developed so quickly ( compared to the Tejas ) is because I had designed the SS ( as a pastime during Christmas Break 2013 ) to make max use of technologies & capabilities already available in India but employ a new concept ( make it run faster by replacing haulage by single Locos w/ EMUs ) for faster running. Semiconductors were key both to power the Motors and for adv. Signaling so they could be run SAFELY on existing tracks. The synergy possible between the Rwy.s and Electronics has NOT been grasped by the Minister who heads both ! If India is serious about catching up with China ( per Deng’s express command since 1995 till today headed by Engr.s, Xi is a Chemical Engr. ) then it must first liberate Govt. funded ( as new high risk Projects like Space, Nuclear, Defence, Semiconductors etc. have to be ) Science & Industrial projects from these IAS or pseudo Engr. IAS and let the most competent people worldwide run them, control the Budgeting process, have direct interaction with the Prime Minister. To prevent the IAS roaches from creeping back in, there must be a radical reorg of all Ministries that are Science, Technology & Industries intensive. A new service to run these Ministries should be launched. It should recruit Scientists & Technologists as Policymakers and Executives. The No. of IAS must be trimmed by 2/3 rds

[@navdeepsugandhi6476]

Biharis would revolt if IAS post got trimmed😂

[@Peaceforall10]

Key Scientists killed in accidents, key factories catching fire, HAL not able produce a aircraft for 3 decades - all these cannot be a coincidence. It was after 80’s the technocrats started migrating to foreign countries which looks to be planned conspiracy. Make them CEO and MD so that they don’t come up with there own units and remain a highly skilled labour class. So legacy is not built as moment this people retire their legacy and knowledge is lost. On the contrary of these people stay and build a unit in India they can pass on their skills, knowledge and hard work to next generation who can then build up on it and take the setup forward. India should denounce and discourage the development when a Indian becomes a CEO of any company in foreign land.

[@Starwarrior9831]

"HAL not able produce a aircraft for 3 decades ...". It is because your government have penchant for foreign handouts. Example is the GE aircraft engine deal, making everyone believes that the US will give away its core technologies for free. The truth is no country gives away its core technologies to others. In building the Lavi, Israel depended on the US for vital data as to its weight ........If for some reason, India is not useful for the US, the engines could be abruptly cut off. I agree with what you said. The key is education, your schools, universities and the willingness of your bright students to return home overseas instead of taking up citizenship in foreign countries.

[@gopalkrishnan5681]

Brilliantly explained SG. It takes skill to declutter technology! Thanks for acknowledging the partisan role played by central govt politicians in denying investment in TN/Chennai when it would have benefitted the nation. We might have been a global player in hardware manufacture but for the shortsightedness of Congress govts. It took a bold Congressman- PVN Rao to start the process of liberating/ decentralizing such decisions by privatizing these key industries. Starting with Nokia, Sony etc. manufacturing phones in 1993-96 to Apple in 2019-20, the state has finally started contributing to nation's hardware manufacturing.

[@priyanks91]

One of the best episodes of all time ! Had no idea of Semiconductor efforts of the 80s

[@ThePrintIndia]

Thank you, my friend. The 80s initiative was an important story to tell, I'm glad you liked this episode. Do keep watching and writing in...best wishes, Shekhar

[@ajayKumarajayKumar-hr7sj]

@@ThePrintIndia Sir, I really like your work. I wish to see the full story behind SCL soon.

[@atokimruk937]

Chip industry can be viewed as the apex of Industrialization. It requires a strong foundation of industrialization to build and exist that India does not have. And that is thanks to Congress and its thug and license raj that did not allow industrialization. Chip manufacturing is very sophisticated and highly automated/robotosized. Even these robotic machines that make chips are mostly made in rhe US. Netherlands, S Korea also have a presence in these semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Chip manufacturing required sharp minds and highly focused people since you are dealing with materials at the atom and nanometers level.. But the Chinese ethnicity which is sharp and focused unlike Indians, put their efforts 40 years ago specifically in Taiwan which resulted in the worlds greatest chip manufacturer TMC which beat Intel that today is gasping for survival. At the high end you have Qualcomm, an all American company and much lower is Micron. Chinese immigrants to USA created Marvell, another chip giant while the Chinese ethnicity but an immigrant from Taiwan created Nvidia which became only the 5th trillion dollar company last month. Middle East funded AMD in the US after years of losses and subpar presence got a smart Chinese woman as CEO and she has turned the company around. Norice not a single Indian anywhere here. Sourh Koreans under Samsung have their own chip base. So India will continue to suffer due to lack of expertise in India and hardly any NRI to help. But India has no choice but to beg and pay for expertise in this vital sector. Indians are paying a heavy price for 65 years of corrupt central govts with no policies and run by illiterate North Indians.

[@rajeshpankan1467]

Very informative session 🙏🙏🙏

[@narasimharao9492]

Frankly speaking when Vedanta wanted to make a fab, it was surprising. Just like Shekar don't know anything about semiconductors, even Vedanta doesn't know anything. But their finances is not good at all.

[@maxmint5384]

All the technicality except for the Shame with which BJP let go of Foxconn 😂😂 Well attempted, Shekhar ji 👌

[@Khalistan_Zindabaddd]

Foxconn was FORCED to go to India by USA.

[@The_0bserverG2]

Oof. The failures, that set us back so much., Thanks a bunch for this video. Agreed, many factual issues, but reporitng especially the SCL stuff, was fantastic. :D

[@sap268]

By the way computer power is measured in MIPs (millions of instructions per second), or MegaFLOPS (million of floating point operations per second). What Shekhar Gupta is talking about is storage capacity -- the huge disk drive he referenced was 5 MB (million bytes), the phone he is talking about is 256GB (giga bytes).

[@JanardhanPrasadDVS]

Either Nehru or Indira both were ahead of times. Its not a joke to establish semiconductor manufacturing unit in 1983, forty years back. A salute to both of them. Rajiv Gandhi lacked national spirit nurtured by leaders upto 1984. Private sector could not take advantage of End of licence Raj and failed to concentrate on research and acquiring patents. Further acceptance of 20 year patent regime in 1994 in the place of 5 years and agreeing for product patent in the place of process patent doomed Indian industry. Indian industrialists are incompetent in the field of research and innovation. That lead to a pathetic situation where in India takes pride in selling India and Indians.

[@arindambaisya]

Loved the episode. Good projects like this, mining projects, nuclear scientists, nuclear reactors have been sabotaged in India for a long time.

[@va-ro]

Sabotage can only be done by our mantris....

[@Roy-qj3kh]

Good report Gupta je ❤