India wants a seat at the global chip table - what’s standing in its way?

India currently sits in 13th place, according to World Population Review’s ranking of territories with the most semiconductor manufacturing plants in 2025, trailing far behind established hubs like Japan, Taiwan, the United States and China. The government has rolled out a series of incentives, unveiled the first “Made in India” chip, and approved 10 semiconductor plants over the past four years. However, past attempts to build wafer fabrication (fab) plants have failed, and key hurdles include mastering chip fabrication, building supply chains and maintaining quality at scale, while competing with lower-cost producers like China. India may take at least “10 years to become a global hub”, InCore Semiconductors co-founder and CEO G S Madhusudan told CNA. The India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), an initiative focused on building indigenous chip development capabilities, has invested more than US$10 billion since 2021.