Report｜Chips, Ties, and Sovereignty: India-Taiwan Semiconductor Collaboration in the Indo-Pacific. Exploring Preparedness, partnerships, and the geopolitics of a shared semiconductor future.
2025-09-01
DATE/TIME｜2025/09/01, 14:00 – 16:30 TAIPEI TIME
PLACE/LOCATION/VENUE｜Room 102, HC Building 3, Guangfu Campus, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Hsinchu, Taiwan
FORMAT｜Online – International
SPEAKERS｜1. Sanket Goel (Professor. Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad, India.
TOPIC: From Sand to Silicon, to Systems: Academia’s Role in India’s Semiconductor Journey.
2. Pranab Kumar Das (Professor of Economics, Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, India.
&
Vivekananda Mukherjee (Professor, Department of Economics and Finance, Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, India)
TOPIC: India’s Semiconductor Industry: Prospects and Problems
3. Poonam Sharma (Post-Doctoral Fellow, International Center for Cultural Studies, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan).
TOPIC: How Chipmakers Redefine the Prospects and Problems in India-Taiwan Bilateral Ties?
4. Megha Shrivastava (MOFA Taiwan Fellow and Visiting Scholar, Institute of National Defense and Security Research, Taipei, Taiwan)
TOPIC: Decoding India-Taiwan Semiconductor Cooperation: Constraints, Calculations, and Missed Opportunities.
MODERATORS｜Joyce C.H. Liu (Professor Emeritus, Specially Appointed Professor, International Center for Cultural Studies, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan)
&
Rosinka Chaudhuri (Director and Professor. Cultural Studies. Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. India.
ORGANIZER｜International Center for Cultural Studies (ICCS), National Yang-Ming Chiao Tung University｜NSTC-ICSSR India and Taiwan Research Collaboration Project (Professor Mei-Lin Pan, Poonam Sharma, Monica Verma, Dolma Tsering)
SUBPROJECT｜Subproject II: The Chip Era and Digital Governance (Principal Investigator: Joyce C.H. Liu) Forum 5
PARTNER INSTITUTIONS｜Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, India. BITS Pilani. Hyderabad Campus
FUNDING SOURCE｜Higher Education Sprout Project. Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan.
EVENT SYNOPSIS｜Amid rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific, India-Taiwan cooperation in the semiconductor sector is emerging as both a technological opportunity and a geopolitical strategy. Taiwan’s global leadership in chip manufacturing and India’s growing semiconductor ambitions present a partnership with the potential to transform India into a key player in the worldwide supply chain. This forum examines India’s semiconductor preparedness and how chip industry exchanges are redefining India-Taiwan ties. Speakers will address industry prospects, constraints, and missed opportunities, as well as the roles of policy, academia, and technology in shaping a more resilient and sovereign semiconductor future.
EVENT INFO｜LINK
EVENT PHOTO｜LINK
REPORTED BY｜Dr. Poonam Sharma
BEGINNING OF THE FORUM｜The forum began with meeting and greeting everyone. Prof. Joyce Liu and Dr. Poonam Sharma started by outlining the schedule of the forum. The presentations from various speakers, each allocated 20 minutes, were followed by a roundtable discussion among the speakers and a Q&A session with the audience. Prof. Liu also welcomed Prof. Rosinka Chaudhury, who co-moderated the event along with Prof. Joyce. The order of speakers was clarified, and the need for brief introductions was emphasized. The organizing group discussed the technical details, such as screen sharing and timing, and suggested contacting absent participants. At the same time, Prof. Joyce Liu invited scholars from the Indian Research group to attend and participate in the ICCS Book Project, scheduled for November. Prof. Sanket Goel and others confirmed their interest in joining the upcoming workshop and field trip to Hsinchu’s Science Park, aimed at enhancing their knowledge of the Semiconductor Industry. The conversation was concluded with Prof. Joyce informing the organizing committee to assist in organizing the visit of Indian scholars to Taiwan, and thus inviting all participants to turn on their cameras and begin recording for the ongoing forum.
This event primarily focused on the India-Taiwan Semiconductor Collaboration in the Indo-Pacific region, and all the presentations covered topics related to India's semiconductor journey, industry analysis, and trade relations between the two countries, as well as the roles of China and the U.S. in the growing bilateral ties between India and Taiwan. The discussion explored various challenges and opportunities in semiconductor production, investment decisions, and the strategic importance of India-Taiwan cooperation in global supply chains and economic collaboration.
The forum began with a brief introduction by Prof. Joyce Liu, who also served as the moderator for the event. Prof. Liu started by introducing the India-Taiwan collaborative project and the academic events that had been organized in the past. He introduced a forum on India-Taiwan Semiconductor Collaboration in the Indo-Pacific region, emphasizing its importance in global governance and national sovereignty. She highlighted how semiconductors underpin modern industry, national security, and emerging geopolitical strategies. Prof. Liu not only highlighted the India-Taiwan geopolitical relations influenced by the contemporary ‘Chip Diplomacy’ but also the impact of Semiconductors and Technological dominance, as well as the rising competence in the Global order. As they moved forward, Prof. Liu invited Prof. Rosinka Chaudhuri to co-moderate the event, representing the Indian group of scholars. Prof. Rosinka, while highlighting the importance of discussing the Semiconductor Forum between India and Taiwan, introduced the first speaker, Prof. Sanket Goel, who has extensive experience in semiconductor research and innovation. Prof. Sanket has received several awards and has experience training his students in technical theories related to semiconductors and technical advancements.
Over the past two decades, India and Taiwan have strengthened their economic and cultural ties significantly. Favorable policies and shared interests have driven remarkable growth in trade and investment exchanges, positioning India as one of Taiwan’s primary export destinations and making Taiwan a strategic partner for India’s manufacturing hub. Since 2016, Taiwan’s foreign policy has undergone significant reshaping through the “New Southbound Policy.” Although it is seen as an extension of the previous administration’s Go South policy, it encompasses a broader geographical and administrative scope (Hashmi 2020). This policy aims to diversify Taiwan’s economic dependencies away from China by strengthening ties with South and Southeast Asia, as well as with Australia and New Zealand. India is also a focal point of Taiwan’s external engagements as it seeks new trade partners. Similarly, India has prioritized commercial relationships with Taiwan since the 1990s, following economic liberalization. India’s current Act East Policy (AEP) aims to reinforce strategic, financial, and diplomatic ties throughout Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, including Taiwan.
Prof. Sanket Goel began by highlighting the significant progress in India's semiconductor journey. He emphasized India’s potential to become a $1 trillion market in the future and the Indian Government's $10 billion investment and promotion through the India Semiconductor Mission. Dr. Goel continued by discussing the various challenges currently faced by the Semiconductor industry, including supply chain issues, talent shortages, and competition from other countries, which were marked and pointed out. Although slow, India’s Semiconductor journey is growing at a remarkable pace with additional support from the authorities. Moving forward, his presentation also outlined academic initiatives at BITS Pilani aimed at addressing these challenges through research, training, and collaboration with industry and other institutions. He elaborated on his experiments and shared his interest in possible collaborations with Taiwanese academic and technical institutions in the future.
The second presentation was a combined study by Prof. Vivekananda Mukherjee and Prof. Pranab Kumar Das, focusing on the growth challenges of India’s semiconductor industry. It presented a comprehensive analysis of India's semiconductor industry, highlighting both its prospects and challenges. He explained the global semiconductor value chain, noting that India currently has a strong presence in design but lacks capabilities in fabrication and assembly. The presentation detailed the growth of India's domestic electronics production and the government's incentives to attract semiconductor manufacturing. Prof. Mukherjee also highlighted India’s mission that promotes research and development in the semiconductor industry, involving substantial financial investment on an international scale.
As a crucial part of this plan, establishing domestic fabs and attracting Taiwanese suppliers would strengthen India’s global electronics value chain position and support the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. The whole process would drive capital flows, create high-value jobs, and stimulate the broader tech ecosystem in India. Moreover, the entire process offers India technical know-how and a depth of supply chain. Most importantly, the whole process strengthens India’s software and AI development in the global order. However, key challenges and drawbacks remain that act as hurdles to India’s semiconductor progress. The identified difficulties included infrastructure needs, water availability, regulatory concerns, and the risk that US trade policies could negatively impact the industry. The study also suggests possibilities for the authorities to address and overcome the mentioned bottlenecks. The discussion emphasized the need for stable government policies and R&D investment to overcome these bottlenecks and facilitate vertical progress in the Semiconductor Industry in India.
Moving forward, the meeting focused on the growing economic and cultural ties between India and Taiwan, particularly in the context of semiconductor diplomacy and technological exchanges. The following Speaker representing the ICCS from the Taiwan Research Group was Dr. Poonam Sharma, who presented on how chipmakers are reshaping bilateral relations, highlighting the significant increase in trade from $4.72 billion in 2015-16 to $10.9 billion in 2022-23. She noted that while Taiwan's new southbound policy aims to diversify economic dependencies away from China, challenges remain due to geopolitical complexities and structural barriers, with Taiwan-India trade still being relatively low compared to China's engagements with both countries.
Dr. Sharma, while moving forward, discussed India's semiconductor mission, highlighting its goal to establish India as a leader in the global semiconductor industry through research and development, financial investment, and collaboration with international partners, such as Taiwan. On a global perspective, she emphasized the strategic importance of reducing India's dependency on Chinese semiconductors and strengthening ties with Taiwan, which has significant expertise in the industry. Poonam also touched on geopolitical implications, including India's efforts to diversify supply chains and reduce geopolitical risks, as well as the potential for India-Taiwan relations to redefine global supply chains and set new economic collaboration benchmarks. She detailed that Taiwan’s role on the global platform is significant, as it is the frontrunner in the semiconductor industry. The island manufactures around 63.8 percent of the world’s semiconductors, and the 2nm process technology is the most advanced available globally. It is well known by now that Taiwan remains the global leader in technology and its related research and development in the semiconductor industry.
Dr. Sharma also highlighted the various ongoing collaborations between India and Taiwan. For instance, in February 2024, Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) and the Indian Company Tata Electronics entered into a venture to invest USD 11 billion to build India’s first wafer fab in Dholera, Gujarat. This joint initiative between India and Taiwan has laid the foundation for India-Taiwan joint chip manufacturing in India. Dr. Sharma concluded that by strengthening ties with Taiwan, India can position itself as a viable alternative within the “China Plus One” strategy, which aims to diversify supply chains away from a reliance on Chinese manufacturing.
The final speaker of the forum, Megha Srivastava, discussed the growing India-Taiwan semiconductor collaboration, while highlighting both opportunities and challenges, she provided an elaborate analysis of the partnerships between India and Taiwan Semiconductor Industry. Her presentation noted that while both countries see strategic benefits in cooperation, including India's domestic market and Taiwan's advanced technology, execution has been slow due to infrastructure limitations, capability mismatches, and geopolitical considerations. Megha emphasized the areas India needs to enhance its credibility as a manufacturing hub by addressing fundamental infrastructure needs and streamlining business processes. While also fostering people-to-people ties and establishing a structured talent pipeline. She concluded that while both countries have logical reasons to collaborate, the pace of growth needs to accelerate to remain competitive in the rapidly changing global semiconductor landscape.
While discussing Semiconductor Investment and Production Strategies, Megha highlighted the areas India needs to focus on to progress and grow in the Semiconductor domain. While moving forward, Megha explained that TSMC's decision not to invest in India was due to a lack of domestic demand for high-node chips and concerns about long-term sustainability. In response to this statement, Prof. Vivekananda Mukherjee raised questions about Taiwan's security risks and the strategic importance of maintaining production in the region. Megha addressed these concerns by noting that while security concerns exist, TSMC's investment in the US was not seen as compromising Taiwan's security. The conversation concluded with clarification from Prof. Mukherjee about India's growing production and export capabilities in the mobile phone sector, where assembly operations have shifted from China to India for export to global markets.
While moving forward the discussion focused on India's semiconductor industry development, with Pranab expressing concerns about the lack of trained personnel and the reliance on legacy chips, while noting that the Dolera project might succeed due to training initiatives in Taiwan. Here, Prof. Maidul highlighted India's position as a minor player in the rare earth elements market and questioned whether India would become a mere supplier of raw materials rather than a producer, citing the challenges posed by bureaucratic bottlenecks and the need for significant investments in critical technology. Megha compared India's approach to China's, noting that local governments in China have been more instrumental in supporting the semiconductor industry through intense subsidy competition. In contrast, India's semiconductor policy remains weak at the grassroots level.
Lastly, the discussion ended by discussing that Taiwan’s role in India's strategy continues to focus more on economic and technological collaboration, such as in semiconductors, rather than a direct strategic partnership. India aligns its Indo-Pacific strategy with ASEAN centrality, mirroring regional norms that avoid explicit references to Taiwan. Despite this, it is also worth noting that India has quietly strengthened ties with Taiwan in several areas, recognizing its economic value while avoiding overt political implications. This approach allows India to engage Taiwan constructively without jeopardizing its diplomatic flexibility or provoking Beijing, reflecting a calibrated and pragmatic foreign policy stance.
Towards the end, Prof. Liu and all the scholars engaged in a discussion about the upcoming book project in November and the tentative contribution of book chapters to elaborate and indicate their respective researchers.
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