> "As the IT minister acknowledges, we already have 300,000 chip designers without doing any chip manufacturing. Nvidia and Qualcomm don’t make chips, neither does Apple. They design them and get them made in Taiwan. Dutch firm ASML makes machines to make chips, without having major chip manufacturers in the Netherlands. This is why I worry that chip subsidies indicate government policies that have not been carefully thought through".
What he isn't saying out loud is that it could be part of the larger 'electoral bond' corruption scam of Modi:
> "The reality is that the chip subsidies are capital subsidies, which are meant to be paid up front, not based on production (unlike production-linked incentives). If the government’s claims that India will be making chips soon is credible, the capital subsidy will have to be paid very soon ...
A large part of the corruption scheme cooked up by our dear Prime Minister was based on his government transferring large amount of public money to corporates in the form of subsidies or waiver and they would share a part of it with him through the anonymous electoral bonds scheme his government created. Modi government has promised nearly $10 billion in subsidy for chip manufacturing, but instead of creating a policy based on production-linked incentives, where subsidy would be disbursed only after a certain level of production has been done, Modi has created a policy where he'll be giving corporates money upfront to setup the chip plants. Obviously, corruption opportunities are higher with such a scheme and there is a danger that the company may wrap up operation in the future, anytime it struggles. Many other countries are also investing in chip plants and the competition is only bound to increase.