On my recent visit to Netarhat Vidyalaya in Jharkhand, I went in expecting to see mining scale. I came back seeing something far more strategic: a materials advantage that India cannot afford to ignore in a world of tightening geopolitics.
Netarhat is more than a hill town, it is a symbol of discipline and long-term thinking. Home to the legendary Netarhat Vidyalaya, often described as a modern gurukul, it shaped generations through rigor, patience and process rather than quick outcomes. Travelling across the same plateau, through Lohardaga, Latehar and Palamu, it became clear that the geology beneath mirrors this ethos: graphite, quartz and industrial minerals whose true value emerges only through refinement, purity and discipline.
Standing near operating belts and industrial zones, one realization became unavoidable: chips don’t fail first because a fab is missing, chips fail because materials don’t arrive.
Days later, in a detailed discussion with Dr. Kumud Ranjan, a GaN/SiC technologist and former DRDO scientist with years of experience in compound semiconductor innovation, I posed a question that now sits behind every serious semiconductor strategy.
Sushmita: “If geopolitical tensions worsen—sanctions, export controls, shipping disruptions, what breaks first?”
Dr. Kumud Ranjan: “Materials. Not fabs. If the upstream feedstocks and purified inputs choke, downstream capacity becomes theatre.”
Recent export controls on gallium, germanium and graphite have reinforced this reality. In modern geopolitics, minerals, not microchips, have become the first pressure point. This exchange frames Jharkhand’s relevance to an East India Semiconductor Corridor: not as a competing ‘fab state,’ but as India’s materials spine, the layer that ultimately determines resilience.
Why India must secure its own materials
Semiconductors and critical minerals are no longer just industrial inputs; they are instruments of national power. The IEA’s Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025 highlights strong demand growth for minerals such as graphite, alongside increasing concentration and vulnerability in global supply chains.
For India, the strategic inference is clear: semiconductor sovereignty cannot be built on fab incentives alone. It must rest on domestic access, processing and qualification of critical materials, particularly those exposed to global chokepoints.
This shift is now visible in policy. The Government of India’s articulation under India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0 explicitly emphasizes building domestic capabilities in semiconductor materials and equipment, not just fabrication.
Semiconductor ecosystems do not depend on a single mineral; they rely on clusters of materials, energy and processing capability. What I observed during my visit was not merely extraction capacity, but the foundation of a mineral-to-material economy—precisely the layer India must strengthen.
Semiconductor-relevant materials in Jharkhand
From a value-chain perspective, Jharkhand’s relevance is clear:
- Quartz and quartzite (silica family) form the starting point for silicon and advanced material pathways.
- Graphite, particularly in the Palamu belt, is a strategic carbon material with growing importance across electronics, power devices, and energy systems.
- Copper ore from the Singhbhum Copper Belt underpins metallurgical and electronics applications.
- Coal and industrial minerals such as limestone and dolomite provide the energy and processing backbone for refining and purification.
- Bauxite supports alumina-linked industrial pathways relevant to advanced manufacturing.
Individually, these are minerals. Collectively, they are inputs to a semiconductor materials ecosystem.
Why Dr Kumud Ranjan’s GaN/SiC lens matters
GaN and SiC technologies are central to EVs, renewable energy, railways and defence, particularly for RF, millimetre-wave and power electronics. These technologies dramatically raise the bar on material quality, purity, and consistency.
As Dr. Kumud put it succinctly: ‘Build the qualification layer first. Without qualification, minerals don’t enter semiconductor supply chains’. This leads to the only credible pathway for Jharkhand.
Jharkhand’s Real PlaybookNot hype—but precision sequencing:
mineral → refined material → semiconductor-grade purity (3N, 4N, 5N+; 99.9 %– 99.999 %+) → qualification → industrial adoption
India’s strategic deficit lies not in mineral availability, but in refining and purification depth. Today, high-value and strategic materials are routinely lost in slag and tailings, instead of being recovered, upgraded and absorbed into semiconductor and power-electronics supply chains.
Jharkhand’s opportunity is to close this gap—to convert geological abundance into certified, usable semiconductor-grade inputs.
For policymakers, this requires a decisive shift from extraction-led mining to purity- led materials development. Priority must be given to companies investing in beneficiation, advanced refining, contamination control, metrology, and qualification infrastructure—the true entry conditions for semiconductor ecosystems.
Executed well, this would anchor Jharkhand as the materials backbone of the East India Semiconductor Corridor, positioning the state as a national hub for high- purity materials and upstream semiconductor resilience.
A strong call to action: What India must do now
If India wants semiconductor resilience, materials must be treated as strategic infrastructure—not commodities.
- Create a Semiconductor Materials Security Track under ISM 2.0, with
explicit targets for domestic materials processing and qualification. - Fund the ‘missing middle’ in mineral-rich states through purification plants and contamination-controlled testing and qualification labs.
- Shift incentives from extraction to value addition, rewarding purity upgrades, traceability, certification, and ESG-compliant processing.
- Formally declare and govern the East India Semiconductor Corridor, with clear role definition: Jharkhand as the materials spine, and eastern/coastal states as logistics and downstream manufacturing hubs.
The Road Ahead:
My Jharkhand visit made one reality impossible to unsee: India’s semiconductor future is decided long before the cleanroom—at the materials layer. In a world where geopolitics can interrupt supply overnight, Jharkhand offers India a structural advantage.
Just as Netarhat trained minds before producing leaders, Jharkhand must now train its minerals, through purification and qualification—before they can power India’s semiconductor future. The only question that remains is one of urgency: Will we build capability before disruption forces the decision?
