India high on our agenda, says Barrett

Craig Barrett

NEW DELHI: World’s largest chip maker Intel on Wednesday said its decision to bypass India for setting up a semiconductor manufacturing unit was on account of the Government’s delay in announcing a policy for the sector.

“We were in serious discussion for chip manufacturing in India but the Government was a bit slow on semiconductor manufacturing proposals,” Intel chairman Craig Barrett said here.

Future assurance

Mr. Barrett justified his decision to go to Vietnam and China by saying “to set up a manufacturing base, we do planning years in advance… The China and Vietnam plans were made much earlier. As the Government was slow in announcing the policy, in the window period we went to these two countries.”

But the Intel Chairman had a future assurance for India.

“Past is past… India is high on our list of future manufacturing destinations if we require additional capacity,” he said.

Asking the Government not to protect old technologies, Mr. Barrett said the company was in discussions with the Government for allocation of spectrum for Wi-Max services (Internet wireless broadband), a cheap and easily deployable service, and with other companies for adoption of this innovative technology.

Mr. Barrett also said India and China would be among the top three economic powers in the world in the next 25 years.

“India and China will grow at a much faster pace than the developed nations... both would emerge among the top economic powers... it is inevitable,” he said. — PTI