Japan has become the second Quad partner after the United States to sign an agreement with India for the joint development of the semiconductor ecosystem and maintain the resilience of its global supply chain.
The agreement was signed between Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw and Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura in the national capital on Thursday.
"Japan and India have signed a memorandum for semiconductor design, manufacturing, equipment research, talent development and to bring resilience in the semiconductor supply chain," Vaishnaw said.
The nations will create an "implementation organisation" that will work on government-to-government and industry-to-industry cooperation, Vaishnaw added.
"Everybody wants a resilient semiconductor supply chain and in this India and Japan are very important partners. This is in furtherance with our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji's very successful state visit to US where many agreements were signed and that is reflecting in cooperation with other countries today," Vaishnaw said.
With around 100 semiconductor manufacturing plants, Japan is among the top five countries to have a semiconductor ecosystem.
"Semiconductor industry will become a USD 1 trillion industry from USD 650 billion at present. This will require a huge amount of talents, significant growth at multiple locations in the world. Japan sees India as a partner where complimentary strengths can be used," Vaishnaw said.
The minister said that Japan houses companies that are global leaders in raw form of semiconductor wafers, chemical and gases, lenses that are used in chip manufacturing equipment, display technologies etc.
"If we can bring this base to India, it will be a big milestone," Vaishnaw said. The minister said that the government has started discussion with Japan's state backed semiconductor industry body Rapidus for collaboration in the segment.
When asked about the impact of China restricting export of critical semiconductor elements gallium and germanium, the minister said that the move has very small impact as there are many more sources of these critical elements in the world.