New Delhi, Aug. 1 -- Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL), India's only operational chip fabrication plant, can become a crucial resource for strategically important sectors even though a modernization push will not upgrade its legacy chipmaking process to a more cutting-edge standard.

The fab seeks to design, package, fabricate and validate semiconductor chips that can fully indigenize production of electronic equipment for the armed forces and space companies, a capability that "no one else" has today, Kamaljeet Singh, director general of SCL, said in an interview with Mint.

"We are an integrated device manufacturer, which means that we start from designing a chip, and then go through technology readiness levels one through nine to bring a...