Semicon 2.0 to be successful if India attracts large equipment, chemicals & gases makers: Ashwini Vaishnaw - electronics.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Vaishnaw's remark exposes the structural gap in India's semiconductor playbook. Semicon 1.0 stacked up wafer fabs and OSAT capacity; the real moat sits upstream — photoresists, etch gases (NF3, WF6), precursors, and the litho/etch/deposition tools from ASML, Lam, TEL. Without these, Indian fabs are expensive assembly lines in someone else's supply chain. Attracting Linde, Air Liquide, or JSR for materials is a replication of the Japan-Korea-US materials triangle. But the equipment bottleneck is more lethal: for 28nm+ mature nodes, India's supplier base remains embryonic. The compliance paradox is sharp: the same US CHIPS Act and EU dual-use frameworks that gate China also make equipment vendors cautious about India, where IP-protection track record remains a board-level concern for TEL and Applied Materials. On competition, China's domestic substitution — Naura, AMEC, Piotech — is closing the loop. If India cannot lock in core suppliers within 24 months, global vendors will lean harder on China's volume, eroding New Delhi's leverage. 12–24 month outlook: gas and chemical plants will land first (lower capex, faster ROI). Equipment localization is a 5–10 year slog. Without indigenous tool R&D, "semiconductor sovereignty" is just another paying customer in the global chain.