Vaishnaw Sees Sabotage Risks as India Pushes Chip Ambitions: Report

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India’s semiconductor industry should prepare for cyberattacks, misinformation campaigns and other disruptions as the country becomes a more significant player in global chip manufacturing, electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has warned.

Vaishnaw said India’s emergence in semiconductor design and manufacturing could be viewed as a threat by established players and told companies they should expect attempts to disrupt the industry.

“We will face cyberattacks. People will spread a lot of fake news. They will also try to do all kinds of physical attacks,” Vaishnaw told NDTV in an interview published on Sunday, 20 September.

“We have to be prepared for this because this is a strategic industry,” he said.

The warning comes as India moves into the second phase of a heavily subsidized effort to establish a domestic semiconductor industry spanning chip design, fabrication, packaging, equipment, materials and research.

The Union Cabinet approved Semicon 2.0 in July with an outlay of ₹1.275 trillion, or about $13.5 billion, substantially increasing government support after the ₹760 billion semiconductor program launched in 2021.

The government says the second phase will focus on six areas: semiconductor design, equipment and materials, additional fabrication plants, assembly and packaging facilities, research and development, and talent.

Vaishnaw separately told The Press Trust of India that geopolitical risks would rise as India developed the ability to design and manufacture chips.

“We have to continuously be watchful of the potential geopolitical risks which will arise because India is now emerging as a country which can design and manufacture chips,” he said.

“That will be seen as a threat by many other established players.”

Vaishnaw said he had discussed the risks directly with semiconductor companies and urged them to prepare for cyberattacks and other forms of disruption.

The comments provide a more cautious counterpoint to the government’s increasingly ambitious semiconductor expansion.

At SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi last week, the government said five semiconductor manufacturing plants had begun commercial production. Twelve projects have been approved under the first phase of India’s semiconductor program.

The government also said it had received investment commitments of about ₹1 trillion across the semiconductor ecosystem. Vaishnaw has put prospective investment under Semicon 2.0 at roughly $11 billion to $12 billion over the next two to three years.

The three-day SEMICON India conference, which ended on Friday, 19 September, recorded more than 51,000 registrations and about 40,000 attendees, according to the Electronics and IT Ministry. More than 600 exhibitors took part, including about 300 international companies, with representatives from 52 countries.

The government said 56 memorandums of understanding, corporate announcements and other initiatives were unveiled during the event, covering manufacturing, chip design, packaging, equipment, materials, research and workforce development.

Among the larger investment plans announced around the conference were commitments by semiconductor equipment and materials companies as India seeks to develop the suppliers needed around fabrication and packaging plants.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the opening of SEMICON India on Thursday that India wanted to become a trusted manufacturing base as companies sought to diversify semiconductor supply chains.

“The world is looking for new and trusted manufacturing destinations. India is steadily preparing itself to meet this need,” Modi said.

India remains a relatively small semiconductor manufacturer compared with Taiwan, South Korea, the US and China, but already has a significant chip-design workforce. Semicon 2.0 is intended to move more of the physical manufacturing and supplier ecosystem into the country.

Vaishnaw said the growing scale of that effort meant companies should treat security as part of the industry’s expansion rather than assume investment and production would proceed without disruption.

He cited problems encountered during the expansion of Apple manufacturing in India as an example, referring to food poisoning among Foxconn workers, disruption to production and a Reuters investigation into the Taiwanese contract manufacturer’s recruitment practices.

“Remember, when Apple’s manufacturing started, some people did food poisoning,” Vaishnaw told NDTV. He also accused Reuters of publishing “fake news” when it reported that married women were being excluded from some assembly jobs at Foxconn’s main iPhone plant near Chennai.

The available public record does not establish that the 2021 food poisoning was deliberate sabotage. More than 250 Foxconn workers became ill after eating contaminated food at company-linked accommodation, prompting protests and a temporary shutdown. Apple later put the plant on probation after Apple and Foxconn said some dormitories and dining facilities failed to meet required standards.

Reuters’ 2024 investigation, meanwhile, cited workers, former employees, recruiters and job advertisements in reporting that Foxconn had excluded married women from some assembly jobs.

The labor ministry subsequently asked the Tamil Nadu government and regional labor authorities for reports on the allegations, while the National Human Rights Commission said the claims, if established, raised concerns over equality and employment discrimination. Foxconn and Apple said at the time that they had policies against discrimination, and Foxconn denied that married women were barred from employment.

Vaishnaw nevertheless argued that the semiconductor sector should expect opposition as India moves into an industry that governments increasingly regard as strategically important.

“Once people start feeling that a new country has come into this industry, there will be people who support us, but there will also be people who oppose us,” he told NDTV.

“I have told the entire industry, be prepared for such incidents now.”