India, April 28 -- While India is pouring concrete in Odisha but the rules for what goes inside those factories are redrafted here in Washington.

From Gujarat to Odisha, new semiconductor packaging plants, assembly lines, and data centers are rising across the country. Every inauguration is presented as evidence that India has entered the front rank of technological powers. In New Delhi, with a message that the India's age of silicon has arrived.

This optimism has value. Manufacturing creates jobs, builds technical discipline, and reduces pressure from India's vast electronics import bill. But a dangerous confusion has entered the national conversation. We are mistaking infrastructure for control. There is a major difference between hos...