India and Japan Sign Semiconductor Supply Chain Resilience Partnership

India-Japan Semiconductor Partnership Deepens Materials and Equipment Ties

India and Japan have signed a bilateral semiconductor supply chain resilience partnership that formalises and deepens the commercial relationships already developing between Japanese semiconductor materials and equipment companies and India's emerging chip manufacturing ecosystem. The partnership, signed between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, creates a bilateral framework covering specialty materials supply, semiconductor equipment exports, engineering talent exchange, and joint R&D in process technology. Japan is already India's most important partner for semiconductor materials and equipment by value, with companies including JSR, Fujifilm, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Tokyo Electron, and ASML's Japanese supply chain deeply embedded in the Dholera fab's supply chain, and the formal partnership provides a diplomatic and regulatory umbrella for this commercial relationship to deepen further.

Materials Pillar and Japanese Specialty Chemicals

The materials pillar of the partnership facilitates Japanese specialty semiconductor chemicals companies supplying Indian wafer fabs under a streamlined trade framework that reduces documentation requirements, accelerates customs clearance for semiconductor materials, and establishes a shared quality standard recognition protocol that avoids duplicative testing of the same chemical formulation across different regulatory systems. Photoresist, anti-reflective coatings, CMP slurries, etch gases, and cleaning chemicals are all covered. The partnership also establishes a joint working group to identify Indian raw material sources that could feed into Japanese specialty chemical production, creating a bidirectional supply chain benefit rather than a purely one-way flow of Japanese materials into India.

Equipment Export Streamlining

Semiconductor equipment exports from Japan require export control approvals under Japan's Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, and the bilateral partnership creates a fast-track mechanism for approvals of semiconductor equipment destined for Indian government-approved facilities under the India Semiconductor Mission. This administrative streamlining is valuable because equipment procurement timelines are often a critical path item in fab construction schedules, and delays in export approvals from equipment-supplying countries can push back production ramp dates. The fast-track mechanism applies to equipment from Tokyo Electron, Screen Semiconductor Solutions, Advantest, and other Japanese semiconductor equipment suppliers whose products are already specified in the Dholera fab equipment plan and in the equipment lists for India's OSAT facilities.

Engineering Exchange and Talent Development

The talent development component of the India-Japan partnership involves a structured semiconductor engineering exchange programme under which Indian engineers can be seconded to Japanese semiconductor companies, fabs, and research institutions for periods of six to twelve months to acquire process and equipment expertise that is not yet available in India. Conversely, Japanese engineers and technical experts will be available to support the ramp of Indian manufacturing facilities under a fast-track business visa framework that reduces the friction of deploying Japanese technical experts in India. Japan's extensive experience in semiconductor manufacturing discipline, particularly in the areas of yield management, equipment maintenance culture, and quality control systems, is viewed by the Indian side as a critical knowledge transfer that can accelerate Indian facilities' path to stable high-yield production.