Chips to ships: Why "Make in India" needs more than a slogan — a practitioner's reflection

I watched Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak about taking India from "chips to ships" and doubling down on Atmanirbhar Bharat at the Uttar Pradesh International Trade Show 2025. His words — that India should manufacture everything domestically — felt both powerful and familiar to me. The speech captured in the Times of India report framed the ambition succinctly: “the country must become self-reliant… every product that can be made in India should be made here” (11 years of ‘Make in India’). The YouTube clip of the address echoes the same conviction PM Modi: From Chip To Ship, India Aims To Manufacture Everything Domestically.

At the same time, the world around us is noisy with trade tensions — tariffs and counter-tariffs — that directly affect how manufacturing strategies must be built. The U.S. tariff probes and tariff policymaking that ripple through global supply chains are vividly described in recent coverage (Trump tariffs live updates). These are not theoretical headwinds; they change where capital flows, how vendors price inputs, and how quickly factories come online.

I write now in the first person because these are not abstract policy ideas to me — they are things I have been tracking and advocating for years. Over the last decade I have written about the very building blocks needed to make an ambition like "chips to ships" a reality: trade levers, scrap and raw-material strategy, MSME upgrade, FDI in specialized recycling and car‑breaking plants, PLI reform for medical devices, and the need to treat semiconductors and batteries as ecosystems, not isolated factories. I’ll cite some of those earlier pieces below because, frankly, they still matter.

Why the ambition matters — and why it’s harder than it sounds

• Ambition matters because manufacturing at scale anchors jobs, skills and strategic autonomy. When Modi says "chips to ships," he is signaling an attempt to convert geopolitical vulnerability into industrial strength.
• But chip fabs, shipyards, defence plants and gigafactories are not interchangeable. Each requires different inputs: rare earths and silicon-grade material for semiconductors; huge, predictable capital and logistics for shipbuilding; steady, high‑quality scrap and steel feed for heavy manufacturing; and specialized batteries and cell chemistry for EV ecosystems.
• And politics and trade policy shape the economics. Tariff wars, such as those discussed in the coverage of recent U.S. trade moves, quickly change the calculus for foreign investors and exporters (Trump tariffs live updates).

Practical ingredients for "chips to ships" (what I look for)

1. Long-horizon capital and predictable policy

• Semiconductor fabs need patient capital, stable electricity, water and long-term tax and land clarity.

1. Secure raw-material and input chains

• For steel-intensive sectors, scrap availability and price matter. I have long argued to build India as a strategic scrap hub (Alang, vehicle scrapping) to feed steel and reduce import dependency (Car Grave Yard of World; Dear Shri Piyush Goyalji — dual scrapping proposal).

1. MSME vendor upliftment

• Final assembly is only as strong as the upstream 40–50 million component-makers and sub‑assembly units. My earlier piece on competitive advantage argued that materials productivity (vendor development and quality improvement) is the high-leverage area for India (Competitive Advantages Are Transient).

1. Industrial diplomacy and trade realism

• Domestic capacity must be built while negotiating realistic trade terms. Zero-for-zero tariff thinking and targeted BTAs can be tools — I explored how tariff concessions and reciprocal offers could be structured to promote inputs and joint manufacturing (India offers Zero for tariffs on steel auto parts, pharmaceuticals from the US).

1. Skill development and automation balance

• High value manufacturing will need both upskilled labour and selective automation; we must ensure re-skilling pathways for existing workers.

1. Strategic push in batteries and medical devices

• Battery gigafactories and medical device PLI (with IoT embedding) are natural complements to a resilient manufacturing economy (see my writing on lithium-ion scale and medical-devices IoT) (Lithium-Ion Battery Rampup; Medical Devices getting Internet Connected).

What I've argued before — and why it still matters

The core idea I want to emphasize is this — take a moment to notice that I raised these themes years ago, often with concrete proposals. Those earlier posts were not grandstanding. They were practical diagnoses and prescriptions:

• I suggested using Alang and car‑breaking FDI to make India a scrap hub so steel‑intensive manufacturing has domestically available feedstock (Alang: Junkyard/Scrapyard/SaveYard; India to become Vehicle Scrapping Hub).
• I argued that India must treat semiconductor and battery ambitions as ecosystems requiring vendor development, logistics, and cheap, reliable capital (Lithium-Ion Battery Rampup).
• I recommended tariff and trade strategies that tie into industrial objectives — for instance, zero-for-zero offers on steel and auto‑parts with the U.S. to attract inputs and technology (India offers Zero for tariffs on steel auto parts, pharmaceuticals from the US).
• I flagged the risk to services and IT from tariff politics and the need to pair trade diplomacy with AI-driven innovation in the services sector (It's an Era of tech Fights, world Economy is the Battleground).

That continuity matters. The policies and tools I suggested then are still relevant now because the structural challenges — capital, raw materials, MSME capability, trade friction — remain the bottlenecks between slogans and delivered manufacturing.

A short, focused checklist for turning rhetoric into reality

• Match policy instruments to sector needs: long-term credit windows for fabs; capital and land support for shipyards; tax and power certainty for gigafactories.
• Secure feedstock: pilot a coordinated scrap strategy (Alang + vehicle-scrapping corridors + import negotiation) to lower steel costs and attract heavy manufacturing. See my dual‑scrapping argument to utilize Alang’s unused capacity (Dear Shri Piyush Goyalji).
• Upgrade MSMEs: technical incubation, vendor development funds, quality labs and procurement linkages to OEMs — materials productivity beats marginal labour arbitrage every time (Competitive Advantages Are Transient).
• Use trade levers smartly: negotiate targeted tariff concessions and BTAs that secure inputs and technology, while protecting genuine strategic interests (as I discussed vis‑à‑vis zero-for-zero offers) (India offers Zero for tariffs…).
• Anchor health and med‑tech to manufacturing ambitions: require IoT-ready standards within PLI schemes for medical devices so India leads in both production and digital health platforms (Medical Devices getting Internet Connected).

A final, personal note

When I read the Prime Minister’s exhortation — and when I review the global pressures described in trade coverage — I feel a familiar mix of optimism and impatience. Optimism because India now speaks with industrial intent; impatience because the gap between intent and industrial capacity is bridged by hard, often overlooked, details. Years ago I wrote about trade wars, scrap strategy, MSME productivity and the systemic nature of manufacturing — not to claim prescience, but because these are the levers governments can use. Those earlier essays still hold practical value, and seeing policy conversations now turn to these exact levers gives me a sense of validation and urgency. The moment calls for discipline: align incentives, secure inputs, upgrade vendors, and use trade diplomacy as a tool — not as a distraction.

I remain convinced that "chips to ships" is achievable, but only if we stop treating it as a slogan and start treating it as an industrial program with the long horizon, patient capital, and supply‑chain realism it demands.

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Regards,
Hemen Parekh

References

• "11 years of ‘Make in India’: PM Modi says government aims to manufacture everything from chips to ships; pushes ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’" — Times of India (link).
• PM Modi speech video: "PM Modi: From Chip To Ship, India Aims To Manufacture Everything Domestically" — YouTube (link).
• "Trump tariffs live updates: US sets stage for tariffs on robotics; Bessent eyes 'levers' in China trade talks" — Yahoo Finance (link).
• My prior pieces referenced in this essay:
• "India offers Zero for tariffs on auto parts, steel from the US" — Hemen Parekh (link).
• "It's an Era of tech Fights, world Economy is the Battleground" — Hemen Parekh (link).
• "Car Grave Yard of World" & Alang scrap strategy — Hemen Parekh (link); follow-ups on Alang (link, link).
• "Dear Shri Piyush Goyalji" — dual scrapping / Alang proposal (link).
• "Competitive Advantages Are Transient" — vendor/MSME focus (link).
• "Lithium-Ion Battery Rampup" and manufacturing scale arguments (link).
• "Medical Devices getting Internet Connected" — IoT and PLI suggestions (link).