'India Prioritises Diversification & Smart Partnerships in Semiconductors': Foreign Secy Misri at SEMICON India 2026

New Delhi: Concentration of critical capabilities in a few hands is not a strategy India wants to depend on, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Friday while speaking at SEMICON India 2026.

“Concentration, wherever it occurs, is worth diversifying away from, not out of suspicion, but as good industrial practice,” Misri observed. He noted that a handful of countries -- sometimes just one -- currently dominate rare earth processing and advanced node manufacturing.

“One credible source is a single point of failure, and therefore an eminently avoidable situation,” he said.

The race to the technological frontier, he argued, has become “a shared national project, an opportunity for companies, not just a contest between states.” Governments worldwide are moving to keep their industries competitive -- through the United States’ Chips Act commitment of over $50 billion, China’s sustained domestic investments, and Europe’s goal of capturing a fifth of global manufacturing capacity. India’s SEMICON India programme, he added, is driven by the same logic.

Clarifying the meaning of self-reliance, Misri was careful to set realistic expectations. “Self-reliance does not mean building everything within our own borders. No nation on earth does that, and no nation should try. The attempt would mean higher costs, slower innovation, and a lonelier industrial base,” he said.

True self-reliance, he explained, means identifying where capabilities must remain sovereign and building those with discipline, while pursuing trusted partnerships with equal focus.

“We are investing to build genuine indigenous strength in design, packaging, and the specific manufacturing steps where our advantage is real, while also inviting the world’s leading equipment makers, material suppliers, and design houses to build alongside us,” he said.

Misri also outlined practical advice for companies navigating the global semiconductor ecosystem. India still depends on imported equipment and materials and must develop fluency across regulatory environments. His counsel was clear: “Look for complementarity, not duplication.” Partnerships grounded in genuine complementarity, he said, tend to outlast those built merely on convenience or cost. Companies should “weigh predictability as heavily as price” and “invest in the relationship before you need it,” through joint research, shared training and people who have worked together earlier.

The SEMICON India Conference, Misri stated, exists precisely to create that space -- bringing governments, industry, academia, investors, established leaders and aspiring students into one room to forge the relationships and joint ventures on which durable partnerships rest.

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