Layman’s Introduction to VLSI #10

This is what happens: the sensitive and honest man opens his heart, and the businessman listens and takes it all in, so that he can swallow up the honest fellow.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

With fuel prices skyrocketing every year, no matter which government you vote for, the only resolve for Indians seems to be electric cars or some hidden oil reserve. Stepping on a hidden oil reserve seems to be a dream too good to be true. This leaves us with our only solution, Electric vehicles. But why are electric vehicles so expensive, especially in India?

And here if I tell you that India spends more money on imports of semiconductors than it does on oil, the same semiconductors which are used in electric vehicles. It's a hard-to-digest fact but it is true. Indian Automobile companies have to spend huge money on buying semiconductors for building electric vehicles, and unlike us, they can not ask their relatives to buy an iPhone on their trip back to India. Indian companies have to spend millions on import duties of semiconductors. That is the reason why many Indian automobile companies are apprehensive about this E-vehicle transition and companies like Ford Automobiles are starting their own semiconductor fabrication unit. And probably because of this exact reason Apple is planning to build their own electric self-driving EVs, as they already have expertise in semiconductor fabrication.

There is a myriad use of semiconductor chips. Apart from being used in computers and smartphones, Microprocessors are used in the Automobile Industry, Aerospace Industry, and Telecom Industry.Thus Importing these microprocessor chips from other countries like China does raise security concerns.

A country without Silicon technology of its own is like a person without a brain. With climate change and rising fuel prices, India has to develop its semiconductor fabrication industry fast. It may sound like a tough challenge knowing the major semiconductor countries like Malaysia and US have been in semiconductor fabrication for decades. But it is not an impossible task. China started the development of its Godson microprocessor in 2001 and In just 9 years they have a leading class microprocessor, seeing the success of its silicon project China has declared to be technologically self-sufficient by the year 2025. If India too wants to be self sufficient in her technological needs then growing its semiconductor industry is the way to go . By training the youth in VLSI fabrication India has to grow beyond the honest man who is taken advantage of by businessmen.