India is expanding its role across semiconductors, electronics and digital services, as new investment rules, supply-chain localization and Apple initiatives highlight both the country's progress and remaining constraints.
India bars Semicon 2.0 chip plants from selling or mortgaging assets before full production
India has barred semiconductor projects approved under its Semicon 2.0 program from selling, disposing of, or mortgaging project assets until commercial production of the entire project is declared, according to guidelines issued on September 17, 2026. The rules attach lock-in conditions on assets, operations, and ownership to the INR1.27 trillion (approx. US$13.22 billion) incentive scheme.
Linde secures Sanand land as global materials suppliers race to localize for India's first fabs
India's chip push is drawing the materials layer of the supply chain onshore. With Tata Electronics' Dholera fab and a cluster of packaging plants in Sanand under way, suppliers of industrial gases, wet chemicals, and photoresists from the US, Japan, and South Korea are moving to secure positions close to their future customers in Gujarat.
Apple Pay arrives in India with a limited card rollout
Apple's entry into India's payments market gives its device users a new way to pay by card, but its initial reach will depend on bank and merchant integrations in a country where a domestic real-time system already dominates digital transactions. The service launched on September 30 for eligible Axis Bank Visa and Mastercard credit cardholders, placing Apple's wallet alongside, rather than replacing, India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Apple keeps iPhone Duo in China, exposing limits of India's phone supply chain
Apple's first foldable iPhone has become a test of how far India has come as a manufacturing base, and the answer is sobering. As India-assembled iPhones reach record export levels, Apple kept development and assembly of its most complex phone, the iPhone Duo, in China. The decision points to a gap: India has become indispensable to Apple's assembly operations, but not yet to its engineering.
China's share of global solar module demand falls below 40% as Europe, India gain ground
The global solar module market is undergoing a significant geographic shift in 2026. China remains the world's largest source of module demand, but its share of global shipments is set to fall below 40%, down 12 percentage points year-over-year, while Europe and India continue to gain ground.
Article edited by Jack Wu
