India a trusted friend in these difficult geopolitical times: Dutch Ambassador

Speaking on the importance of semiconductors, she said, “Semiconductors are of very high importance to us in this strategic partnership. We have witnessed how India is making rapid strides in semiconductor-manufacturing and design. There is strong government support through the digital Indian semiconductor mission.”

On what the Netherlands brings to the table in the field, the Ambassador said, “The Netherlands is a global hub, is a semiconductor power house, the home of ASML Holdings – the sole supplier of EUV lithography machines, which is critical to making advanced chips. We have NXP, which is now expanding in India. They are leaders in IoT (Internet of Things) and automobile chip design. In The Netherlands, we also have a strong ecosystem of chip manufacturers, research institutes and academia.”

On areas of cooperation between the two countries, she said, “India and The Netherlands have complementary strengths. India is strong in the area of semiconductor design software and a massive skilled workforce. The Netherlands has high-end manufacturing of semiconductor equipment and deep tech R&D (Research and Development). So, there are a lot of opportunities to strengthen the partnership. This brings me to my third point. Along with IESA last year, we have drawn up a report to do a scoping mission to see areas in which we can work together. We are now in the run-up to an MoU to have a leaders meeting (in The Hague) trying to see how we can make this practical as well.”

Gerards also highlighted three major points of possible cooperation, including collaboration between technical universities and research institutes with which “we think that we can actually step up and focus on chip design, on AI driven semiconductor photonics and quantum computing.”

The second area she highlighted was talent development, saying, “We are exploring joint semiconductor training, development programmes”. She further said, “We already have one pilot programme running since last year where we set up a virtual school with research institutes and several IITs. We had experts from ASML and NXP and Tata delivering lectures and it was a big success. We will do it again bigger and better.”

Gerards said, “The third point is supply chain and investment. Dutch semiconductor equipment companies can support India’s ecosystem and I see an opportunity to strengthen India’s supply chain with Dutch expertise in lithography and high-precision manufacturing.”

The ambassador said India is one of the fastest growing semiconductor markets and “Gujarat is leading in this sector”, reiterating that The Netherlands is committed to being India’s trusted partner.