Gunjan Krishna, Karnataka's Commissioner of the Department of Industries and Commerce, recently visited Taiwan to attend Foxconn's 50th-anniversary celebration. Her visit came in the wake of Foxconn investing an additional US$1 billion on top of the US$1.6 billion earmarked to produce 20 million phones annually at its facility near the Kempegowda International Airport in Karnataka. Notably, Foxconn CEO Young Liu was recently honored with the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian awards in trade and industry.

Japanese automakers are playing catch-up in the electric vehicle (EV) market, trailing behind their global competitors. With Japan-made EVs struggling to gain traction in key markets such as China, the world's largest automotive market, the United States, and the expansive European Union, where the market surpasses that of the US, Japanese carmakers are setting their sights on India, the world's third-largest automotive market and home to the largest population.

Thanks to the declining lithium costs, EV makers in India are busy cutting the prices of their products, as EV suppliers are trying to gain market share ahead of the expected import duty reduction on EVs, which may open the door for the influx of foreign-made EVs.

As the chip ecosystem rapidly evolves in India, US-based semiconductor firms are expanding their investments, with Qualcomm expecting US$1 billion in India in 2024.

India's chip ecosystem is rapidly evolving, and local firms' ties with Taiwan-based companies on semiconductors are expected to deepen.

In 2023, Google announced plans to make Pixel smartphones in India this year, and the latest rumor indicates that production lines will be ready in the first quarter, with mass production commencement in the second quarter, echoing similar moves by Apple, Acer, and Asus to move production in India amid global geopolitical tensions.

Following an agreement for an integrated facility in Tamil Nadu, Vietnam-based VinFast said it would begin constructing the EV facility, a big step for the company on its way to the global foray.

A tractor manufacturer has signed an agreement to use Volkswagen's lithium cells.

Holtek Semiconductor, a Taiwan-based MCU specialist, anticipates a 50% increase in revenue from the Indian market in 2024 and plans to expand its operations in the country.

According to Young Liu, chairman of Hon Hai Technology (Foxconn), the Taiwan-based contract electronics vendor collaboration with Apple will be more extensive.

Kaynes SemiCon, a subsidiary of the Indian EMS Kaynes Technology, has entered into a strategic partnership with Recynergy Technology, a Taiwan-based company specializing in semiconductor backend test engineering. This collaboration aims to transfer semiconductor manufacturing technology and supply chain knowledge from Taiwan to India, utilizing the skilled engineering workforce in India to meet local and global semiconductor needs.

Due to weak sentiment from the enterprise market, India saw declining shipments of PCs and tablets over the past year.

The venture capital arm of Applied Materials, Applied Ventures, announced an investment in VVDN Technologies for the latter to expand the R&D of the next-generation semiconductor technologies, and electronics products and solutions, reports PR Newswire.

As electric vehicles (EVs) gradually penetrate the nascent Indian market, Volkswagen looks to make inroads by partnering with local manufacturers aspiring for the EV sector and launching its EV portfolio in the country.

In light of the global effort to find alternatives to x86 systems amidst increasing demand, RISC-V systems are emerging as a solution to various challenges. Madhav Rao, senior vice president of engineering at Tessolve, recently told Digitimes Asia there is a strong interest in RISC-V from their customer base.