Correct Answer : Singapore
India and Singapore on Thursday (5th Sep 2024) announced the signing of a key bilateral pact to partner and cooperate in the field of semiconductors, as the two countries elevated their ties to a "comprehensive strategic partnership".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a 2-day visit to Singapore ahead of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations, to be celebrated next year.
As part of his fifth visit to the affluent city state, Modi oversaw memorandum of understanding (MoUs) being exchanged on semiconductors, digital cooperation, education and skill development, health and medicine.
The tech partnership comes as advance manufacturing, with the focus on semiconductors, has been added as a pillar for bilateral cooperation.
On Thursday, Modi and his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong visited AEM Holdings Ltd's semiconductor facility, and was briefed by the Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association.
"India aims to establish a global node for semiconductor manufacturing and has strong domestic demand in the electronics, electric vehicles, and manufacturing sectors that would benefit from its semiconductor industry growth. Singapore’s established semiconductor ecosystem has given rise to more domestic semiconductor ecosystem players which are keen to enter emerging global nodes such as the Indian market," the Singapore government said.
While Taiwan has long dominated high-end chip-manufacturing, Singapore has increasingly become known for making low-end chips vital to electric cars, and smartphones.
According to the Singapore government, the country's semiconductor industry currently constitutes about 7-8 per cent of the country's GDP, and contributes to around 10 per cent of the global semiconductor output.
Earlier this week, the Cabinet approved the fifth semiconductor unit to be set up in India, under a proposal by Kaynes Semicon to produce up to six million chips per day at an investment of Rs 3,307 crore.
The pact on digital cooperation envisages the sharing principles and mechanisms of governance frameworks and implementation rules for data protection, which may include model contractual clauses, certifications, or other mechanisms to enable data flows, alongside digital public infrastructure. It also focuses on enhancing cooperation between the cyber security agencies of both nations..
Source : Business Standard
