On India’s efforts at becoming a global semiconductor manufacturing hub, Hitesh Garg, Vice President & India country manager at Nasdaq-listed NXP Semiconductors, which has a market capitalisation of $60 billion with 35 per cent of its R&D workforce across four cities in India, said that the thriving chip design ecosystem in the country can support budding manufacturing capacities in a symbiotic manner. In an interview with Aggam Walia, Garg highlighted how chip design can improve EV battery longevity and secure devices against evolving cyber threats, and the need for more research at the university level.
In 2021, there was a crippling chip shortage in the automotive industry which continued for several quarters. How do things stand now?
Car manufacturers use this method called just-in-time, which means ordering a component an hour before it is needed to be assembled in a car. I think it is a method that gives the highest level of efficiency. However, after the coronavirus pandemic hit, car manufacturers told chip manufacturers they would not need chips for the next six months to one year because of reduced demand. We also unreserved our capacity in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) factory as we did not want the chips we were designing for the automotive industry.
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