CII chief hails govt’s PLI push for chips, calls for urgent state level reforms to clear bottlenecks

India’s ambitious semiconductor push could emerge as a national competitive edge — but only if it’s backed by faster approvals and deeper reforms on the ground, warns Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) President Rajiv Memani.

“The Indian Semiconductor Mission is of strategic importance and it should contribute well… The government has set a clear PLI scheme. The allocation of funds for the PLI scheme is substantial. They have four serious players who are already setting up under this mission. I am sure more will do… Once the ecosystem develops, it becomes a strong competitive strength for a country,” Memani said.

Memani has called for urgent reforms to address ground-level challenges hampering investment, particularly around the large number of approvals required for setting up new projects.

He underlined that while India has made big-picture progress in ease of doing business rankings, a significant number of bottlenecks remain at the state level.

Memani praised the government’s efforts to address such issues and acknowledged that a high-level committee has been constituted to streamline processes. However, he emphasised that time-consuming land allocation and 12-month-long environmental clearance processes continue to hold back capacity expansion.

Memani also welcomed the internship scheme launched by the government, noting that it was a step in the right direction. “It’s one of the best schemes… the private sector is very keen to provide skilling,” he said.

He reiterated that granular ease-of-doing reforms and faster clearances, especially at the state level, will be crucial to helping India unlock its next phase of growth.