State lagging in semiconductor industry: Maharashtra Academy of Sciences president
In 2022, a political row had erupted in Maharashtra after Indian company Vedanta and Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn signed a MoU to set up a Rs 1.54 lakh crore semiconductor plant in Gujarat instead of Maharashtra even after the talks were at the final stage.
50 year celebration event of the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences. (Express photo by Soham Shah) Professor Dinesh Amalnerkar, president of Maharashtra Academy of Sciences, on May 11 highlighted that Maharashtra was lagging behind in semiconductor manufacturing compared to other states in the country. Amalnerkar was speaking at the celebration event on the completion of 50 years of the Academy in Pune.
He said, “We must focus on semiconductor sovereignty in research, technology, and education. This is a gap in our state. Last year, one of my friends from USA Professor Rao Tummala, who is from IBM and an advisor to the Government of India under the India Semiconductor Mission, told me that Assam, Gujarat, Orissa, Telangana, UP, Madhya Pradesh are picking up in semiconductor technology. But there was not a single application (for semiconductor plants) last year from the Government of Maharashtra.”
In 2022, a political row had erupted in Maharashtra after Indian company Vedanta and Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn signed a MoU to set up a Rs 1.54 lakh crore semiconductor plant in Gujarat instead of Maharashtra even after the talks were at the final stage.
Further, Amalnerkar said that India should move past jugaad research. He remarked, “We have to move from being the centre of jugaad, a term popularised by Dr Mahindra of Mahindra and Mahindra. Marginal innovation, that’s the problem with India… A paradigm shift is needed from this jugaad centre to a global hub of high quality indigenous innovation. Our focus should be on major technological macrotrends.”
Previously, Anand Mahindra also said that India should move from jugaad to jhakaas, which is radical, high-quality innovation.
He added, “Let this golden jubilee be more than a celebration of the past. Let it be a launchpad for the future where Maharashtra leads the global scientific stage.”
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