Linking Taiwan and India Through Technology and Media

In November of 2024, in a corner of Neihu District in Taipei, scholars, politicians, entrepreneurs, tech experts and media representatives gathered for the Third India Taiwan Dialogue, jointly organised by the Taiwan Asia Exchange Foundation and the Observer Research Foundation.

Key topics discussed throughout the day were collaboration in the field of technology and semiconductors, as well as a need for greater understanding between the general populations of both nations, a field in which participants noted there was a key role for the media to play.

While Taiwan and India have both shown willingness to engage at deeper levels, particularly since 2020, the two countries still have important challenges to overcome.

Semiconductor manufacturing

Semiconductor manufacturing is one of Taiwan’s strengths as well as a key industry that countries around the world are trying to lure in order to secure supply chain access. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the vulnerability of global supply chains, spurring countries such as Germany, Japan and the USA to put an emphasis on increasing the amount of semiconductor production at home.

Bringing manufacturing giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to their own shores has been a key goal of these three nations, with varying degrees of success. While chips are used in almost every kind of electronic device, it is no coincidence that these three nations all have a significant automobile production sector, which was badly hit during the pandemic when global chip supply chains were disrupted.

In India’s case, the country has a sense of momentum, with a comparatively young population and a fast growing economy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi even set the ambitious goal that during his third term in office India will become the world’s third largest economy. In order to do that, there are some key areas that India knows it needs to develop.

Of course, India is already a world leader in pharmaceuticals, notably vaccine production (something that also came to the fore during the latter stages of the pandemic). But in terms of technology, India is heavily reliant on the import of both Chinese and Western semiconductors, leaving its economy vulnerable to the waves of potential conflict in the ‘new cold war’ era of the West versus Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. So far, India has balanced its relationships with both sides, keeping many economic options open, but long-term there is no doubt that India is pushing for a strong semiconductor industry based within its own borders.

The 300 km corridor between Bengaluru and Chennai has been known as India’s Silicon Valley, and sure enough, 80% of Taiwanese tech companies in India are located here. However, New Delhi has also started to create a new development area, Dohlera in the state of Gujarat. The site is set to become India’s latest tech hub, attracting semiconductor fabs from around the world, including from Taiwan.

The first big tech project in Dohlera is a collaboration between Taiwan’s Powerchip (PSMC) and India’s Tata Industries to build a mega state-of-the-art fab that will mass produce 28 nm+ chips. This production is particularly geared towards servicing the automotive, data storage, wireless communication and artificial intelligence industries.

Whether this project can spur the growth that India wants by bringing in further investment, turning Dohlera into a tech city and India into a key tech player remains to be seen. Fabs aren’t built in a day, and it will take at least a decade before it is possible to measure the success or failure of this ambitious plan.

Immediate partnerships

Turning to consider partnerships, the urgency with which India and Taiwan are beginning to engage with each other is significant. Trade between the two countries has gone from US $5.23 billion dollars in 2010 to $8.224 billion dollars in 2023 (albeit with a blip in between during the pandemic era).

Looking at person to person exchanges, there has also been a significant boost in the number of Indian students coming to Taiwan for work or study. There are currently around 3,000 Indian students studying in Taiwan at higher education institutions around the country, up from just above 1000 in 2016.

Naturally, many of these students are pursuing a career in the tech industry and Taiwan is a key place to learn the trade. Many Indian white collar workers are also employed in Taiwan’s tech sector, with this trend only set to accelerate as India seeks to train its own workforce with the necessary skills for the semiconductor industry.

However, for the two countries to collaborate successfully across sectors, there is a need for understanding between the two societies at large.

While Taiwan is investing in the education sector in India, with 39 Taiwan Education Centres now operational in universities across India to teach Mandarin to local Indian students, we don’t see any significant number of Taiwanese students pursuing study in India. As Taiwan invests further into India, the question remains whether a Taiwanese workforce will begin to embrace India. While we see the increasing number of Indians coming to Taiwan for work or study, there isn’t yet the same reciprocation of Taiwanese heading to India.

As for media penetration, Radio Taiwan International has built a significant audience in India and it now has three dedicated listener clubs across India who regularly engage with the station. TaiwanPlus is also available on India’s largest OTT platform, JioTV. However, Indian media has not yet entered into the Taiwanese market in the same way.

In a TAEF paper, Senior assistant editor at The Times of India, Rudroneel Ghosh, suggested that cooperation between Taiwanese and Indian journalists could be a positive way to boost understanding between people from both places, something that seems quite feasible so long as there is a will from both sides. Cultural understanding is an area where the media can play a vital, facilitative, educational role. However, for mutual understanding to develop, there is no substitute for real-life in-person interaction between populations.

In conclusion, it is clear that communication in all its varied forms is essential for healthy relationships. Currently there are no direct flights between Taiwan and India which seems symbolic of some of the practical changes that must be set into motion to enable the kind of collaboration and partnership building that those at the academic and governmental level hope can define the future.

(Featured photo from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company)