With India’s recent objection to the American CHIPS Act at the World Trade Organisation, the focus is back on the economic, technological and geopolitical significance of the semiconductor industry.
The US law, ostensibly aimed at tackling the China “threat”, was criticised by the Indian government for restricting equal access to technology. And it wasn’t the first such episode hinting at the geopolitical vitality of semiconductors: the US had earlier cut off chip supplies to Russia and subsequently banned the shipment of Nvidia and AMD products to China.
