In this era of digital and electric vehicles, semiconductor has become the most important thing. India has launched several campaigns to achieve self-reliance in this area. Now a report of NITI Aayog has come on this issue which shows that India has to spend huge amount on import of semiconductor related products and this is also affecting the foreign exchange of the country. In the last 8 years alone, India has imported semiconductor products worth approximately Rs 14 lakh crore. For the last two years, it has been seen that about 30 percent more is being imported every year.
At present, semiconductors and the products made from them are most needed to run electric vehicles, software-based vehicles, AI-based devices, AI-based computing, high-tech server systems, data processing units, data centers, health sector, agriculture and network-based systems. The result of this is that its demand has increased rapidly not only in India but all over the world. The global semiconductor market was worth $631 billion in 2024, which is expected to reach $1029 billion by 2030 and $1547 billion by 2035.
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The NITI Aayog report says that India can move forward by advanced packaging, chiplet manufacturing, designing chips that run on low power and making GaN and SiC based chips for electric vehicles. NITI Aayog has also said that India needs to pay special attention to this sector immediately because India is completely dependent on imports, in the coming time this may threaten the security of the country and may affect the foreign exchange reserves.
How much is it being spent?
According to the NITI Aayog report, India is completely dependent on imports in the case of semiconductors, which has had a significant impact on India’s foreign exchange reserves in the last few years. In the last 8 years, India has imported semiconductor related products worth 150 billion dollars i.e. approximately Rs 14.34 lakh crore. NITI Aayog estimates that due to the increasing use of semiconductors, its import and expenditure on it is going to increase further in the future.
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If we look at the figures of the last 8 years, there has been an increase in imports every year compared to the previous year. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, imports of semiconductor-related products have increased by 11.9 percent in 2021, 21.6 percent in 2022, 19.9 percent in 2023, 28.7 percent in 2024 and 30.3 percent in 2025. It is estimated that if the increase continues at this pace, then by 2035 the annual import can reach 240 billion dollars 23 lakh crore rupees.
What is NITI Aayog’s advice?
NITI Aayog believes that at present India is progressing rapidly in the world of semiconductors at the global level and it also has the potential. In such a situation, NITI Aayog’s advice is that India first needs to work to fulfill its own needs in this area. After that he can contribute to the global supply chain.
NITI Aayog’s advice is that India should focus on designing chips for AI, 10-13% share in the global chip market, producing 15-25% of its chip requirement by the year 2030 and making chips for 5G/6G.
In this report, NITI Aayog believes that if India succeeds in doing this, then it will be able to reduce its dependence on imports by meeting its own needs. However, NITI Aayog has also admitted that this journey is not going to be easy due to constraints like lack of resources, money, talent and technology.
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