New Delhi, May 5

 As India aims to reach $300 billion electronics production by FY26, it will trigger demand for semiconductors worth $90-$100 billion, largely driven by domestic mobile manufacturing — an opportunity the country must tap.

The current electronics manufacturing at nearly $103 billion translates to a semiconductor requirement of $26-$31 billion, considering the industry average of 25 to 30 per cent of chip components in any electronics product’s bill of material (BOM).

“With the expected rise in electronics production ($300 billion by 2026), this number is set to rise substantially to $90-$100 billion,” according to the data by the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA).

Mobile phone production contribution in the overall electronics manufacturing jumped from 10 per cent to a whopping 44 per cent in the span of the last seven years.

In FY23, the total import of integrated circuits (ICs) reached $16.14 billion (out of which $12 billion was only for mobile phones).

According to the ICEA, processor chips, which are advanced chips specifically for high-end phones, may require some time before India can produce them at a competitive level.

“However, there is a commercial viability in fabricating processor chips for entry-level smartphones in India. This could be a consideration for the new semiconductor fabs,” said the apex industry body.

The data showed that with a monthly output of around 1.5 million units (10-14 nm) of chipsets – assuming 15,000 wafers of 300mm at 70 per cent yield from a fab, and considering the number of dies per wafer to be 148 – the annual output could be approximately 18 million chipsets.

Therefore, the critical task before all the stakeholders is to translate the burgeoning semiconductors requirement into domestic production and reduce dependency on imports.

“This transition would boost domestic procurement and increase the viability of the semiconductor fabs in India,” said the ICEA.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March laid the foundation stone for three semiconductor projects worth Rs 1.25 lakh crore. 

  AGENCIES

Islamabad, May 4

 Pakistan government’s decision to form a national agency called the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) has raised concerns in the country with several experts citing that the move would not only gravely affect citizens’ right to privacy but is also aimed at targeting the massive social media presence of jailed ex-PM Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

The Establishment Division of the Pakistan government announced the formation of NCCIA with the prime focus on countering propaganda and rumours on social media and safeguarding the digital rights of people.

“There must be an end to harassment, including online,” said Federal Minister for Information and Broadcast Attaullah Tarar on Thursday.

He added that there was an “immediate and dire need” of an authority like NCCIA to address the issue of online harassment and also to protect the digital rights of consumers.

However, security experts do not agree with the government and have expressed serious concerns over the negative effects on the citizen’s right to privacy.

“It raises concerns that go beyond the duplication of efforts and resources, the move may also gravely affect citizen’s right to privacy which seems to have been overlooked in the rush to bolster cyber defences,” said Khawaja Khalid Farooq, former Inspector General of Police and ex-head of National Counter-Terrorism Authority.

Another view states that the military establishment wants to have a strong strategy and authority in place to tackle the anti-establishment campaigns run by PTI through its large presence on social media.

“PTI is the only political party in Pakistan with a very strong social media presence. Its campaigns and social media teams have the strongest influence on the masses through social media engagements,” says senior political analyst Javed Siddique.

“The anti-military sentiments have prevailed and broadly expressed on social media platforms by PTI and Imran Khan’s supporters. NCCIA may be designated and directed to work with prime focus on tackling the dissemination of PTI-led anti-establishment campaigns on social media under the legal cover of the controversial PECA act,” he adds.

It is pertinent to note that formation of NCCIA would render the already-existing Cyber Crime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) as defunct.

As per the notification in the Gazette of Pakistan, the formation of NCCIA has been formed under Section 51 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA). The notification also mentioned that NCCIA would take over the cyber crime investigations of the FIA Cyber Crime Wing in December 2024, adding that FIA would now cease to perform functions as designated agency under the act.

“The NCCIA will be headed by a Director General, chosen by the federal government to serve a two-year term. The NCCIA chief would exercise the powers of an Inspector General of Police while the agency’s affairs related to the federal government’s business would be allocated to the Interior Division,” the Gazette of Pakistan notification maintained.

Experts, however, believe that the formation of NCCIA is irrelevant because FIA cyber crime wing has got the framework, requisite capabilities and is equipped to deal with cyber threats.

“Creating the NCCIA to replace the FIA’s cyber crime wing could result in an overlap of responsibilities, leading to bureaucratic inefficiencies and confusion,” said Farooq.

“There is a risk that the pursuit of cyber security, privacy rights could be compromised without stringent checks and balances in place,” he added.

Another view states that the military establishment wants to have a strong strategy and authority in place to tackle the strong social media presence of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) that targets the military establishment.

“PTI is the only political party in Pakistan with a very strong social media presence. Its campaigns and social media teams have the strongest influence on the masses through social media engagements. The anti-military sentiments have prevailed and broadly expressed on social media platforms by PTI and Imran Khan’s supporters. NCCIA may be designated and directed to work with prime focus on tackling the dissemination of PTI led anti-establishment campaigns on social media under the legal cover of the controversial PECA act,” said senior political analyst Javed Siddique.

AGENCIES

Washington, May 4

Indian Americans are calling upon a US university not to implement a portion of one of the demands it conceded to protesting students to display on campus the flags of “occupied people”, which listed Kashmiris along with Palestinians and the Kurds.

“This is a dangerous territory for Rutgers to get involved (sic),” Thomas Abraham, chairman of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), wrote in a letter to Jonathan Holloway President, Rutgers University-New Brunswick in New Jersey state.

“By even considering this demand, you are questioning the integrity of India. Kashmir is very much part of India. There is no separate flag for Kashmir. Kashmir residents are not displaced people. In fact, the displaced people are the Hindu minorities who had to leave Kashmir because of violence against them. If Rutgers displays such a flag of Kashmir, that will be the beginning of more sit-ins by students who are opposed to such flags,” Abraham wrote.

The university has not implemented this demand.

“The Office of the Chancellor will take stock of flags that are displayed across Rutgers- New Brunswick campus, and ensure appropriate representation of students enrolled in academic and other spaces,” Chancellor Francine Conway wrote in a three-page letter responding to the protesting students on Thursday.

The students had demanded, as specified in her letter, “display the flags of occupied peoples — including but not limited to Palestinians, Kurds, and Kashmiris – in all areas displaying international flags across the Rutgers campuses”.

Students were protesting the Israeli war in Gaza as students of many universities across the country and had put forth 10 demands.

The top demand, which has been common to protesters in all other universities, was divestment from companies doing business with Israel or supporting its war effort and cutting links with Israel.

The chancellor said the university is reviewing these links and will discuss the findings with the students.

Indian Americans are focussed on the one allowing the display of the flag of the “occupied people” of Kashmir. “So @RutgersU has caved,” Suhag Shukla of the Hindu American Foundation wrote in a post on X.

AGENCIES

Sanaa, May 1

 The US-British coalition in the Red Sea launched a fresh airstrike on Yemen’s Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah, media reported.

The strike targeted the port of Ras Issa in the northwestern district of al-Salif, the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV said on Tuesday without providing additional details.

Residents described the explosion as powerful, saying the strike hit a Houthi position, Xinhua news agency reported.

The coalition has yet to comment on the alleged strike.

Since last November, the Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, have initiated the launch of anti-ship ballistic missiles and drones targeting Israeli-affiliated vessels passing through the Red Sea, to show support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

They said their attacks would not stop unless Israel stops its military operation in Gaza.

In January, the US and Britain launched a military operation by carrying out airstrikes on Houthi military sites.

In response, the Houthis escalated their attacks on commercial and military vessels from the US and Britain in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. AGENCIES

United Nations, May 1

 As Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood firmly by his determination to send troops into Rafah, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appealed for international pressure to stop the attack on the area where more than 1.2 million Palestinians are sheltering from Israeli invasion that has rolled across most of Gaza.

“I appeal for all those with influence over Israel to do everything in their power to prevent it,” he said on Tuesday.

“A military assault on Rafah would be an unbearable escalation, killing thousands more civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee” the area where “more than 1.2 million people are now seeking shelter in Rafah governorate, most of them fleeing the Israeli bombardment that has reportedly killed over 34,000 people”, he said at a news conference.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, stated firmly: “We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate Hamas’ battalions there, with or without a deal, to achieve the total victory”.

The statement came ahead of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Israel where he is expected to reinforce President Joe Biden’s opposition to the invasion of Rafah, which, according to the White House, the President reiterated to Netanyahu in a phone call on Sunday.

Guterres warned that an incursion into Rafah would have “serious repercussions on the occupied West Bank, and across the wider region”.

The US and its allies have been trying to get Israel and Hamas on a deal that would lead to a ceasefire and the release of some hostages kidnapped by the terror organisation in an attack on Israel in October.

Blinken said in Riyadh on Monday that “Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily – extraordinarily – generous on the part of Israel”.

“And in this moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide, and they have to decide quickly,” he said.

According to media reports, Israel has lowered the number of hostages it demanded freed to less than 40 in exchange for the release of some Palestinian prisoners and a limited ceasefire.

Guterres warned that a famine was looming over Gaza because of limited access to food. He called for the opening of two more crossing points between Israel and northern Gaza to enable the delivery of aid into Gaza from Ashdod port and Jordan.

According to the State Department, Blinken on Tuesday met UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag in Amman and discussed the “shared commitment to surge critical humanitarian assistance in Gaza and ensure the recent increase in delivery of assistance is accelerated and sustained”.

Guterres said that he was “deeply alarmed” by the discovery of mass graves in Gaza, including at two medical complexes.

Given the “competing narratives” around the mass graves and the killing of those buried there, he said that “it is imperative that independent international investigators, with forensic expertise, are allowed immediate access to the sites of these mass graves”.

Guterres reiterated his condemnation of Hamas with a reference to the Jewish holy days. “As Passover ends, I once again express my solidarity with the victims of the unconscionable Hamas terror attacks of 7 October, with the hostages, and with their families and friends.” AGENCIES

United Nations, May 1

 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an internal investigation of the newly found mass graves in Gaza.

“I am deeply alarmed by reports that mass graves have been discovered in several locations in Gaza, including Al Shifa Medical Complex and Nasser Medical Complex. In Nasser alone, over 390 bodies have reportedly been exhumed,” he said on Tuesday.

There are competing narratives around several of these mass graves, including serious allegations that some of those buried were unlawfully killed, he told reporters as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

“It is imperative that independent international investigators, with forensic expertise, are allowed immediate access to the sites of these mass graves, to establish the precise circumstances under which hundreds of Palestinians lost their lives and were buried, or reburied.”

The families of the dead and missing have a right to know what happened. And the world has a right to accountability for any violations of international law that may have taken place, the UN Chief said.

Hospitals, health workers, patients, and all civilians must be protected. The human rights of all must be respected, Guterres added.

The health system in Gaza has been decimated by the war. Two-thirds of hospitals and health centres are out of action. Many of those that remain are seriously damaged. Some hospitals now resemble cemeteries, he noted. AGENCIES

Kyiv/Moscow, May 1

 The Ukrainian government is increasing its spending on drones by an additional 15.5 billion hryvnia ($392 million), Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said, as the unmanned surveillance and combat aircraft become increasingly crucial assets for Kyiv in its fight against Russia.

“With the funds allocated today, 300,000 drones will be delivered to our security and defence forces,” he said at a Cabinet meeting in Kyiv on Tuesday. According to Shmyhal, Ukraine had previously budgeted 43.3 billion hryvnia for the purchase of drones this year.

Ukraine has rapidly expanded the development and production of drones of various types under pressure from Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion of the country more than two years ago. In recent weeks, it has also increasingly attacked the Russian hinterland with these weapons.

The Russian Ministry of Defence in Moscow said on Tuesday that three Ukrainian combat drones had been intercepted over the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk.

One woman was killed and another injured by unspecified Ukrainian fire in the Russian border village of Kosino, according to the governor of Kursk, Roman Starovoit.

The reports could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry said Ukraine has attacked Russian military bases in Crimea with US-supplied missiles.

It said Russian air defence systems repelled six long-range ATACMS missiles in the past 24 hours.

Independent media reported hits on three military bases on Monday night, injuring several people.

Several soldiers were reportedly injured after a fire broke out during an attack on an air defence position near the Crimean capital Simferopol, according to the independent website Astra.

Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed governor of Crimea, said a missile attack on the village of Donske near Simferopol was intercepted. However, he warned of unexploded ammunition remnants.

Simferopol is more than 200 kilometres away from the front line.

The Dzhankoy airport in the north of Crimea, where a Russian helicopter regiment and air defence forces are stationed, also came under fire again. According to media reports, five soldiers were injured there.

Astra said four further soldiers were injured in an attack on a military target in the Chornomorske district in the northwest of the peninsula.

The US said it would be supplying long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine as part of the new weapons package agreed in Congress in April.

Previous US missile deliveries had a range of 165 kilometres.

Elsewhere, Latvia will provide Ukraine with a further military aid package, including anti-aircraft guns and unmanned surveillance drones.

“We must ensure Ukraine wins the war for the sake of Ukraine, European security, and the world order,” Prime Minister Evika Siliņa wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The air defence and drone systems will come from Latvian military stocks. AGENCIES

Kyiv/Moscow, May 1

 Ukrainian drones have damaged a refinery in Ryazan, some 200 kilometres south-east of Moscow, an unnamed representative of the Ukrainian military intelligence service HUR told the Ukrainska Pravda website.

“A military target in Ryazan was hit. There is considerable damage,” the website reported. Independent Russian media reported a fire at the Ryazan refinery.

The second target was an oil processing plant in the Russian region of Voronezh. The intelligence service did not officially confirm the information, but the Ukrainian press is informed of such attacks in secret.

The Russian Ministry of Defence in Moscow announced that Ukrainian combat drones had been intercepted during the night over the Russian regions of Voronezh, Ryazan, Belgorod and Kursk.

The Ukrainian armed forces have further developed their drones and have been attacking refineries far into the Russian hinterland for several weeks. The aim is to disrupt the fuel supply for the Russian army.

The US has criticised these attacks because it fears an impact on world oil prices. However, Kyiv is sticking to this tactic. Ukraine has been fending off a large-scale Russian invasion for more than two years.

On Wednesday, the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was hit by several glide bombs fired by Russian aircraft from a safe distance. The governor there, Oleh Syniehubov, reported at least three deaths.

Overnight, Russia fired missiles at the Ukrainian port city of Odesa on the Black Sea. According to regional governor Oleh Kiper, three people were killed and three others injured. AGENCIES

Jakarta, May 1

 Authorities on Wednesday began evacuating about 12,000 residents after Indonesia’s Mount Ruang volcano erupted, spewing ash and rocks.

Mount Ruang, located in the Sangihe Islands arc in North Sulawesi province, has been increasingly active in recent weeks. Authorities on Tuesday raised the alert level to the highest possible after new eruptions, warning of potential pyroclastic flows, deadly ash surges and the possibility of a tsunami.

The eruption also caused a power outage on neighbouring Tagulandang island and forced the closure of Sam Ratulangi International Airport in Manado, disrupting air travel in the region, officials said.

“A total of around 6,500 people have been evacuated from five districts,” Feri Ariyanto, a search and rescue official in Manado City, told dpa.

Abdul Muhari, the spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency, said 12,000 residents who live within a 7-kilometre radius around the volcano would have to be evacuated.

He said residents were being evacuated by ferries operated by the National Search and Rescue Agency, the Indonesian navy and police.

“We will ensure that they are prohibited from leaving the evacuation shelters to return home during the extended emergency response period of up to 14 days, or until conditions are completely normal,” he said in a statement.

Residents of Tagulandang were plunged into darkness following Tuesday’s eruption, while the airports in Manado and Gorontalo remained closed, said Ariyanto.

“All power has been cut off,” he said.

Ships provided the only source of illumination at the island’s port, local media reported.

“We panicked as showers of volcanic rocks, gravel, and ash rained down,” Yefti, a resident, was quoted as saying by medcom.id news portal.

The Indonesian archipelago sits on the seismically active “Ring of Fire” and is no stranger to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. AGENCIES