Tag Archives: india

India’s push to secure place in global chip supply has ‘secret weapon’: its people

India’s push to secure place in global chip supply has ‘secret weapon’: its people
India is betting big on domestic manufacturing of semiconductors – the microscopic brains that power everything electronic from cars to AI processing – in an ambitious bid to slash imports and boost its local industry.

But observers say the country should set its sights even higher upstream on the value chain by mobilising its “secret weapon” – a talent pool that could realise its dream to turn “Make in India” into “Engineer in India”.

New Delhi earlier this week launched the second phase of its mission with a budget of US$13 billion to build an industrial ecosystem spanning chip design to manufacturing. Building on the first phase, which focused heavily on foundational industrial set-up, the second expands support across the entire supply chain, including developing a large manpower pool.

The move on Monday comes as other countries in the region, such as Japan and Singapore, outline multibillion-dollar development plans for their semiconductor industries following chip shortages during the Covid-19 pandemic that exposed dependency on a handful of East Asian manufacturers.

Delhi has already approved 12 semiconductor manufacturing projects across six states. Three – Micron, Keynes Semicon and CG Semi – have started commercial production this year. They primarily handle assembly, testing and packaging rather than advanced wafer fabrication.

An industrial partnership between India’s Tata Electronics and Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation plant in the western Indian state of Dholera is targeting to roll out its first batch of chips in December. Tata also signed a US$11 billion memorandum of understanding with Dutch technology giant ASML on May 16 to make advanced chips for industries ranging from car manufacturing to AI.

In for the long-term

Analysts say that building a semiconductor industry ecosystem requires strong implementation and planning over the long term because it needs a complex value chain divided into design, fabrication, as well as assembly and testing.

“Establishing a complete semiconductor ecosystem is a marathon, not a sprint,” said Anndy Lian, a Singapore-based adviser to governments on information technology systems.

He suggested that India build not only fabrication units for complex microchips and integrated circuits but also downstream systems to handle back-end processing after they are made. “These are less capital-intensive and faster to operationalise than fabs, allowing the country to build a skilled workforce and supplier network while major fabs remain under construction.”

Hard infrastructure is also vital because highly sensitive semiconductor manufacturing needs pure water, uninterrupted power and specialised chemicals. “A single voltage fluctuation can ruin a wafer batch. India must create plug-and-play industrial parks where utilities are guaranteed to international standards, not just promised,” Lian said.

Though India has lagged behind in semiconductor manufacturing such as the US, China and Taiwan, it has a strategic advantage because it has been a hub for semiconductor research and design. It has the world’s largest pool of chip design engineers – but lacks fab-floor operators – responsible for day-to-day manufacturing of silicon wafers – and process engineers who transform raw silicon into working microchips.

Bolstering its large talent pool would be a crucial “secret weapon” for India in gaining a competitive edge, Lian said, urging public-private partnerships with universities offering specialised semiconductor curricula. “The goal should be to move from Make in India to Engineer in India.”

According to a report by government think tank NITI Aayong in May, India imports 90 to 95 per cent of its semiconductors. This dependence could become a major economic and strategic vulnerability as domestic demand is projected to exceed US$200 billion by 2035.

India’s Information Technology Minister Aswini Vaishnaw told reporters earlier this month that the country had set a target of developing 100,000 engineers for the semiconductor industry. The global semiconductor industry is projected to face a shortage of about 1 million workers by 2032.

India has already achieved its target of developing 85,000 semiconductor engineers in four years, against a target timeline of 10 years, according to the minister. Semiconductor design programmes are now offered in 355 universities across India, including institutions in smaller towns and cities.

Chip consciousness

In addition, the federal government runs programmes subsidising up to 50 per cent of project costs for semiconductor manufacturing, supplemented by support from state governments.

Indian policymakers were conscious about the criticality of semiconductors in technology systems, said Sunil Sinha, an economics professor at the Institute for Development and Communication in Chandigarh.

“That is why there is a serious effort to increase semiconductor production in India. Still, the issue is not just production of chips but what generation chips you are producing. Is it something on which AI can ride upon?” he asked.

Raj Kapoor, founder and CEO of India Blockchain Alliance said that the second phase of India’s semiconductor mission showed there was growing recognition that the challenge would be to not just build fabrication facilities but an entire ecosystem to support them.

While the Tata-ASML agreement showed India’s intent for advanced chipmaking, the true test would be translating that into access for the country’s longer-term semiconductor ambitions, he said.

India’s strategy is notably different from the technological race pursued by the global semiconductor leaders to produce cutting-edge chips. Delhi appeared more focused on manufacturing chips where “demand remains substantial and barriers to entry are lower”, Kapoor said.

Still, Sinha said, even the most basic chips would have a significant economic impact because that meant local industries would not need to import them.

Source:
 

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j

Beyond payments: India aims to architect Indonesia’s digital future

Beyond payments: India aims to architect Indonesia’s digital future
India’s wildly popular digital payments system, which began as a way for people to send money instantly by phone, could help the country turn one of its biggest domestic technology successes into a tool of diplomacy, analysts say.
That opportunity is coming into focus in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, where officials are studying whether India’s low-cost digital systems can be adapted to their own needs.

The talks centre on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s instant payment system launched about a decade ago that has become one of the most visible parts of the country’s digital transformation.

New Delhi has already signed agreements with several nations, including Singapore, to facilitate cross-border payments, but analysts say Jakarta’s interest appears to go further.

According to a report in The Times of India on Monday, Indonesia is looking at India’s broader digital public infrastructure as a possible blueprint for building its own sovereign system. Several Indonesian delegations have also recently visited India to study public policy initiatives as Jakarta seeks to strengthen food security and healthcare services.

Anndy Lian, a Singapore-based adviser to governments on blockchain and information technology, said a successful digital collaboration between India and Indonesia could serve as a “massive proof of concept for the Global South, particularly within Asean”.

“Many developing nations are actively seeking alternatives to expensive, proprietary Western financial networks or heavily centralised systems,” he said.

“By demonstrating that scalable, open-protocol digital ecosystems can be successfully adapted across borders, India and Indonesia are establishing a highly attractive sovereign blueprint for digital transformation.”

Indonesia has formally set a target to become a global digital economic leader by 2045, aligning with its centennial milestone.

Lian cautioned, however, that a collaboration between India and Indonesia would require incorporating safeguards because adopting systems across different regulatory environments carried risks such as data privacy breaches and cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

“Second, there is the risk of ‘model mismatch’. India’s solutions are tailored to its specific demographic and bureaucratic realities, which may not translate perfectly to other nations without rigorous localisation,” he added.

Over-reliance on a single foreign partner for core digital infrastructure could also raise long-term “technological sovereignty concerns”, Lian said, urging countries to carefully balance digital efficiency with technological independence.

UPI has anchored a digital revolution in India that has helped bring large sections of its teeming population into a formal economy. Indian nationals can now access a range of welfare programmes through digital infrastructure, including the sharing of medical records.

Lian said India could leverage its digital initiative across Asia as it would enable millions of Indian tourists to make payments when visiting countries such as Indonesia, and also create a financial pipeline for Indian businesses and investors operating in Southeast Asia.

“Geopolitically, this elevates India from a participant in the global digital economy to a primary architect of its infrastructure. This is not merely about payments; it is a vector for exporting India’s broader tech ecosystem,” he said.

India’s digital services have expanded beyond its traditional bread-and-butter IT ones in the last five to six years to include fintech start-ups, cybersecurity firms and other enterprises.

“Beijing will undoubtedly view the India-Indonesia digital alignment as a strategic encroachment on its sphere of technological influence,” Lian said.

“India’s digital diplomacy is undeniably strengthening as it pivots from merely exporting technology to providing comprehensive governance blueprints.”

By sharing foundational digital frameworks like UPI and Aadhaar, a national digital identity base, India could offer peer-tested solutions, he said.

Jamus Lim, an associate professor of economics at the ESSEC Business School, noted that many back-end systems in the region already relied on Indian technical expertise.

“There are natural network effects that will reward first movers that establish the industry standard,” he said, adding that the faster India was able to roll out agreements using its standards, the better its position would be for South-South partnerships and agreements.

Raj Kapoor, president of India Blockchain Alliance, said leveraging its digital public infrastructure had become “arguably India’s most distinctive soft-power asset right now, because it’s cheap to export and it plays well as South-South solidarity”.

“Historically, countries exported infrastructure through roads, ports and power plants. Today, nations increasingly export digital infrastructure. India is emerging as one of the few countries capable of exporting an entire governance,” he said.

India should see collaboration in UPI “not as the destination, but as the opening chapter”, Kapoor said.

“We should use Indonesia as the flagship Asean case study to accelerate parallel talks with Vietnam, the Philippines, and others as first-mover advantage matters in standards-setting.”

 

Source: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3359736/beyond-payments-india-aims-architect-indonesias-digital-future

 

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j

India’s ‘back office’ reputation under threat amid rise in sophisticated cyber scams

India’s ‘back office’ reputation under threat amid rise in sophisticated cyber scams
India’s hard-won reputation as the world’s back office, built on trusted call-centre and IT services, is coming under pressure as increasingly sophisticated cyber scam networks emerge within the same digital ecosystem that underpins its outsourcing success.

A police raid late last month on a Hyderabad call centre that allegedly trained tele-callers to mimic Australian accents has sharpened those concerns, with analysts warning that organised fraud rings could erode confidence in India’s service industry.

According to local media reports, the callers had contacted Australian citizens by falsely warning that their computer systems had been hacked or compromised, then coaxed them into handing over remote access that allegedly enabled the criminals to infiltrate bank accounts.

The stolen funds were redirected to other Australian bank accounts before being transferred to India through illegal channels.

“These operations are no longer ‘old school’ crude phishing outfits, but are professional units replete with linguistic training and cross-border coordination, signalling a shift from low-skill fraud to high-sophistication social engineering ecosystems,” said Raj Kapoor, president of the India Blockchain Alliance think tank.

The manner in which the tele-callers were trained to imitate Australian accents suggested a structured fraud economy, complete with training modules and managerial oversight, he said. “This mimics the organised cyber-fraud hubs seen in Southeast Asia.”

Southeast Asia – particularly Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos – has become a global hub for cybercrime due to a convergence of weak rule of law, authoritarian protection and economic desperation.

The stakes for India to prevent such crime are higher than those for other Asian countries because of its thriving US$150 billion outsourcing industry, analysts say.

“The primary threat is reputational damage – global clients may question whether Indian service providers can adequately vet operations and prevent brand impersonation,” said Anndy Lian, a Singapore-based adviser to governments on blockchain and IT.

Fraudsters leveraging India’s cost advantages and skilled workforce for criminal enterprises created a systemic risk for legitimate businesses, he said.

Lian suggested that India introduce measures for call centres such as stringent “know your customer” procedures to verify client identities and financial profiles, and establish a centralised cybercrime intelligence to prevent such offences.

The Chinese criminal gangs behind Southeast Asia’s scam centres

Industry executives say such institutional and technological tools need to be used in tandem with joint law enforcement with other countries because the manner in which the Hyderabad-based call centre secured information about Australian citizens points to a cross-border network.

“This raises serious questions about data brokerage, leaks from private companies, and unsecured digital ecosystems where personal information is traded like a commodity,” Kapoor said.

A UN report from October 2024 estimated that financial losses from online scams targeting victims in East and Southeast Asia were between US$18 billion and US$37 billion in 2023. These operations leverage advanced technology like AI and deepfakes to exploit victims, and challenge weak legal frameworks.

According to Kapoor, cybercrime thrives because it functions like an open market, with scripts and tech tools being bought and sold.

Indian-origin cyber syndicates were increasingly plugging into transnational scam infrastructures, especially those operating out of Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and parts of Africa and the Middle East, he said.

“Indian gangs are using these global marketplaces to outsource operations, hire foreign specialists or collaborate with offshore crime-as-a-service providers.”

Experts say such cooperation allows overseas gangs to exploit India’s large labour pool while masking their own footprints.

The establishment of a sophisticated cybercrime network is a worry for India’s rapidly digitising economy. According to an Indian government report in late October, more than 86 per cent of households are now connected to the internet with the aim of easing citizen services that range from payment transactions to healthcare.

India’s Information Technology Act 2000, which serves as the bedrock of the country’s cyber law framework, is aimed at addressing offences such as impersonation and cheating through computer resources, but industry executives warn enforcing the law against sophisticated cyber criminals across the country’s vast and diverse landscape is a task fraught with challenges.

Fake call centres like the one in Hyderabad exploit regulatory gaps, digital anonymity and the ease of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) – which enables phone calls over broadband internet – to mask their geographic origins, according to Amritraj Kaushal, an advocate in India’s Supreme Court.

“Traditional policing tools struggle against such hybrid fraud structures, which merge local recruitment with international command centres,” he said.

Indian authorities say they envision industry-led collaborative centres that would continuously monitor multiple systems and layers within the country’s complex digital ecosystem.

Niharika Karanjawala-Misra, principal associate at law firm Karanjawala and Co, said scaling up public awareness through campaigns would be key to preventing such cybercrimes.

“Once the scam has been committed, no matter how quickly and efficiently authorities act, not only is it close to impossible to recover the full amount taken fraudulently from the victims, the kingpins of such fraud operations often escape punishment, sometimes conducting the operations virtually from foreign countries,” she said.

Industry executives also called for cross-border cooperation between law enforcement agencies to boost crime prevention.

“If criminal networks can globalise, coordinate across continents, and evolve technologically in real time, why are our protective frameworks still confined within outdated borders, old laws and reactive policing?” Kapoor said.

He urged Indian authorities to upgrade their cybersecurity infrastructure against modern digital crime, or risk only firefighting against scammers.

 

Source: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3335229/indias-back-office-reputation-under-threat-amid-rise-sophisticated-cyber-scams

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j