BENGALURU: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said that the next world war will be fought on chips, emphasising India’s need to invest resources in building the semiconductors industry.
“We have to figure out, are we a bystander and a victim or are we a player. If we have to be a player, we have to weigh into it, make the investments, train the people and we have to bring something to the table and we are doing that,” Jaishankar said at the India Ideas Conclave 2024 held in Bengaluru on Friday.
Jaishankar noted that the Semiconductor Complex Ltd (SCL) was set up in the 1980s in Chandigarh, way before China and Taiwan had entered the global fab race. But, he said, the semiconductor industry had been completely neglected since then.
Fabs are fabrication facilities that produce semiconductors.
“Look at the situation today. You have a PSMC coming up, collaborating with an Indian company to set up a fab. You have a Micron. You have Lam Research, we have Applied Materials, we have a whole host of companies because we have a government with a vision and has the boldness to back it up with resources and has an understanding of the world and of its talents,” he said.
Jaishankar added that the current brand of Bharat is viewed as an ambitious brand. “There is a sense today that we take the hard calls, we will put in the resources, we will go our own way,” he said.
Also at the India Ideas Conclave 2024, on Friday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman separately said that India should position itself as a nation practising responsible capitalism.
“We need to understand that capitalism also has its limitations. It is important to brand India as a responsible capitalist country, one that knows how to take care of its people, with many of its institutions doing their job,” Sitharaman said.
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