India Must Reduce Dependence On Foreign Energy, Critical Technology: Goyal
This shift will be essential for long-term growth and sovereignty, the commerce minister underlined.
Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal underlined the need for India to move away from its dependence on foreign critical technology and energy, according to a statement on Wednesday.
Goyal made a keynote address on 'India's Deeptech Moment: From Digital Leadership to Technological Sovereignty' at TiEcon Delhi 2025.
India must "reduce dependence on foreign critical technology, energy", Goyal said, adding that this is crucial for "long-term growth and sovereignty".
The minister further said that it is important for the nation to have control over critical supplies. He also said that it was very important to decouple and protect the country from overdependence on certain geographies.
Goyal's comments can be contextualised by India's dependence on semiconductors and rare earth minerals for its tech industry. The former is used in consumer electronics, automotive industries, telecommunications, industrial automation, healthcare and AI, while the latter is vital for clean energy, defence and medical technology sectors.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called semiconductor chips "digital diamonds", likening their importance to the global economy to that of oil which has been called 'black gold' due to its importance as a source of energy.
The main source of semiconductors is Taiwan, which supplies 90% of the world's semiconductors, followed by its neighbour China, and the US.
The Indian government, in recent period, has announced various steps to reduce this dependence. This includes the investment of around Rs 1.6 lakh crore on 10 semiconductor projects, with companies like Kaynes Tech and CG Power building semiconductor fabs in India.
S Krishnan, secretary of Ministry of Electronics and IT, also announced the India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 for developing the ancillary ecosystem around semiconductor plants, including gas and chemical suppliers.
Meanwhile, China, which owns the most rare earth minerals, announced an export curb of these minerals due to trade tensions and "safeguarding it's national interest", making access to this vital resource more difficult for countries, including India.
