Written by Shikha Shaurya.
Image credit: Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City by Tainan City Government.
India and Taiwan share a robust alliance that is unpretentious and low-key, yet highly resilient. Cooperation among the two is deeply embedded in trade, science and technology, education, culture, and people-to-people exchange. In the last decade, the relationship has been evolving at an unprecedented rate.
The Taiwan-India economic partnership has grown significantly, reaching approximately USD 12.514 billion. Partnership between high-tech Indian firms such as Tata Electronics and Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation demonstrates how the two collaborate in the field. Both corporations are investing up to ₹91,000 crore (about US$11 billion) to construct India’s first significant semiconductor factory in Dholera, Gujarat. According to Tata Electronics, the proposed facility will be a 300mm (12-inch) fabrication plant with a monthly capacity of 50,000 wafers and a technological coverage of 28nm to 110nm.
These projects represent already existing strong connections between India and Taiwan in the semiconductor industry. However, it is necessary to expand this relationship in a more diversified, multifaceted direction to meet the needs of the hour.
Taiwan is not simply a semiconductor powerhouse. Rather, a technologically empowered actor that helps in addressing the social, economic, and environmental implications of digital disruption. India is also experimenting with pioneering digital infrastructure, green energy commitments, and ethical AI discourse. The convergence of these areas needs prioritised attention, as they are also widely recognised for their global significance.
Collaboration between Taiwan and India will enhance the digital technology sector. Green industrial policy, climate resilience, circular manufacturing, democratic technology, and AI governance are some of the arenas where both actors should connect actively to advance ethical digital uses. Initiatives like “green digital cooperation,” which use environmental sustainability and the digital transformation, act as complementary foundations for a global green ecosystem.
India’s public policies are also focusing on the responsible green agenda. India is targeting to achieve 50 per cent cumulative installed electric-power capacity from non-fossil fuel-based sources by 2030, around 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2070. Such goals cannot be achieved simply by generating technological capacity. It necessitates infrastructure (smart grids), power electronics (hardware), and digitised industrial monitoring.
To build efficient infrastructure, smart grids require advanced digital technologies to track and optimise energy distribution from decentralised energy resources. To provide enormous hardware support, Taiwan can help in the field. Similarly, India’s software expertise helps Taiwan scale in its market. Subsequently, such ties help advance the global green digital ecosystem.
Furthermore, Taiwan and India are seeking to deepen their cooperation on renewable energy, as noted by Saxena and Shetty (2024). This kind of cooperation reduced dependency on China’s solar industry while upholding green mandates. Taiwan’s solar manufacturing linkages complement India’s aim for easily accessible, green energy at the national level of integration.
There is more to the digital green objective than just component emphasis. Cooperation on R&D related to supply-chain traceability, battery systems, and power distribution is required to establish a fully digitalised energy network.
In the case of Semiconductor chip fabrication, it is highly unsafe for the environment. It consumes large quantities of electricity and ultra-pure water. Importing carbon-intensive technologies does not make sense when the goal is decarbonisation. Tata and Taiwan’s PSMC’s collaboration on the Dholera project in Gujarat is India’s first semiconductor Fab and plays a significant role in AI-enabled, efficient semiconductor manufacturing. This partnership complements digital green policies. Dholera Fab project meets high environmental standards and can promote renewable energy adoption, ethical waste management, and circular supply chain initiatives. Such initiatives have been critical for the current Anthropocene era.
These initiatives can help in promoting responsible green digital ties and open up several opportunities. Dholera Fab has up to ₹91,000 crores of investment, 50% Government of India fiscal support and 50,000 wafer starts per month of planned capacity. The AI-enabled fab will produce chips for automotive, power electronics, display, computing, communications and AI applications. The Fab projects are also set to generate 20,000 skilled jobs. Recently, the Government of India also approved two other semiconductor projects with an investment of around ₹3,936 crore. These projects focus on “GaN-based Mini/Micro-LED display manufacturing” and semiconductor applications in “power electronics, automotive systems, and industrial automation.”
Taiwan is mainly known for its semiconductor capacity and its issues across the cross-strait. A digital green agenda would enable Taiwan to expand its reach globally. Taiwan’s 2050 plan utilises technology and law to transform its energy, manufacturing, lifestyle, and society. Taiwan is enhancing its image from a chip manufacturing hub to a responsible partner in sustainable digital empowerment.
The 2025 report “Taiwan Beyond Semiconductors” from the Centre for Strategic and Development Research shows that although trade, education, and semiconductor cooperation have grown, the relationship is still underutilised, with potential in urban planning, disaster management, healthcare, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and quantum technologies.
Climate science is another main facilitator and accelerator in the respective field. National Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science and National Taiwan University have been working on the photocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into usable fuels using sunlight. Reports have shown notable improvements in efficiency when converting CO2 to acetaldehyde. These initiatives might seem insignificant in comparison to a US$11 billion project. However, they demonstrate the potential of science-and-technology cooperation to foster a partnership that is socially beneficial, politically low-risk, and internationally readable. Such functional cooperation is not secondary in a limited partnership.
A serious digital green diplomacy agenda should have several foundations: Taiwan and India should develop green fabrication standards for all of their upcoming partnership semiconductor projects. These ought to include waste management norms, emissions reporting, water stewardship, and renewable energy purchasing requirements. They should build a clean-energy hardware partnership focused on solar, storage, micro inverters, battery management systems, and power electronics. Taiwan’s firms already have deep capabilities here, and India is one of the world’s largest future markets.
In the field of circular electronics, cooperation is necessary. The Indian electronics sector is growing rapidly. However, e-waste problems will get worse if components are not recovered, repaired, and recycled. By utilising Taiwan’s expertise in efficient manufacturing and circular-economy principles, India may transition from assembly to ethical electronics ecosystems.
Both actors should focus on digital climate governance. Taiwan’s sensor and hardware strengths can be combined with India’s expertise in software and digital public infrastructure for applications such as AI-enabled energy forecasting, smart grids, precision agriculture, disaster early warning technologies, and climate risk assessment.
Investment announcements are not sufficient alone to sustain semiconductor cooperation. Hiring professionals such as engineers, materials scientists, climate policy experts, and linguists is necessary for successful cooperation. The partnership would gain institutional depth through joint degrees, industry internships, green technology fellowships, and university labs.
Taiwan and India should also lower their dependence on China. Taiwanese businesses were shifting their supply chains from China to India. According to Reuters, bilateral trade reached US$10.1 billion in the fiscal year ending in March 2024, and Taiwan’s foreign direct investment in India grew dramatically over the five years preceding 2023. Given its promising future for India-Taiwan relations, digital green collaboration is essential. To develop sustainable technological systems for the Indo-Pacific, both sides are working together.
Semiconductors are the main element of cooperation between India and Taiwan. However, the two should not confine the relationship to a particular business. The convergence of chips, energy, climate, data, mobility, and resilience will influence the future economy. Taiwan and India are in a unique position to operate at that crossroads. Taiwan has hardware depth and manufacturing precision; India has digital scale, policy ambition, and a vast market for clean technologies.
A digital green engagement agenda would not displace semiconductor cooperation. However, it will make the relationship more resilient, legitimate, and more pertinent to the upcoming century with climate challenges.
Taiwan’s external relations should not be seen solely through the lenses of semiconductor indispensability or great-power conflict. Quieter approaches to problem-solving engagement may also help Taiwan. New Delhi and Taipei will do more than diversify supply chains if they help transition from chip collaboration to a climate-conscious digital alliance. They will contribute to defining responsible technology collaboration in the Indo-Pacific region.
Shikha Shaurya is a scholar of Chinese Studies (International Relations) and a doctoral researcher at the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her research focuses on China’s global media, strategic communication and international communication narratives, with particular attention to China Global Television Network. She has also been a visiting research scholar at Sichuan University, China. Her wider interests include Taiwan–India relations, media diplomacy, AI governance, climate policy and Indo-Pacific politics.
This article was published as part of the special issue on ‘More Than Chips: Education, Innovation and Strategic Ties between India and Taiwan’.