Where India could have leverage with China is not in manipulating ByteDance’s revenues but if it got into the semiconductor space.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology published a programme that outlines incentives that focus on electronics manufacturing (of which semiconductors are a subset). However, none of the above has translated into a significant shift that puts India at a comparative advantage when it comes to semiconductor manufacturing.
In case you have been following the news, developments around TikTok are hard to look away from. The app has been associated with Twitter, Apple, and Microsoft. Closer home, reports have surfaced claiming that ByteDance is in talks with Reliance for investment in the short video app. While news around TikTok’s future is catchy, it takes away from the more significant shifts that are currently occurring in the global technology landscape
As things stand, the global semiconductor landscape is too essential and diversified for India to miss out on. In case you are not familiar, semiconductors are the foundation of modern age of technology. Advancements in the semiconductor space make possible virtually everything, including smartphones, washing machines, toasters, cars, and every single piece of advanced military equipment. And while the world has not been looking, semiconductors are being used as a means for the US and China to engage in high tech warfare.
The world not looking seems to be part of a larger pattern. But it can be hard to pin down why not enough people pay attention. Maybe it’s because the industry has always been in the background and the supply chain worked just fine for the most part. Or because semiconductors are not always seen as an end product, but a part of smartphones. Or because the customers of semiconductor chips are not regular people, but instead companies like Apple and Huawei, who in turn make consumer products. Or maybe it is all of the above. Most of these reasons also explain why TikTok is so prevalent in the discourse, apart from being a hugely divisive app.
PersTECHtive 