India, Aug. 10 -- Anyone who ran an electronics line through 2021 remembers the arithmetic. A microcontroller costing less than a cup of tea could hold up a vehicle worth several lakh, and no quantity of steel, plastic or skilled labour standing ready in the plant made the slightest difference.

That period passed. The condition that caused it remains, and four comfortable years of supply have blurred the difference between recovery and resilience.

The exposure is a matter of public record. NITI Aayog's Frontier Tech Hub, in its Future of India's Semiconductor Industry roadmap released in May 2026, puts India's import dependence at 90 to 95% of semiconductor consumption, with close to USD 150 billion spent on semiconductor product import...