back to article Top chipmakers ignore India's semiconductor factory subsidies

India has revealed the identities of companies that have applied to build semiconductor manufacturing facilities on its soil under a $10 billion subsidy scheme – and none are substantial chipmakers. As The Register reported last week, a consortium of Taiwan's Foxconn and Indian firm Vedanta committed to build a plant under the …

  1. ShadowSystems

    Good luck with that.

    You prevent us from enjoying a private & secure communications capability, we'll stop doing any financial transactions in your country. Because if I can't trust the connection to, say, my bank, then damned if I'll trust any financial transactions to happen on your communications infrastructure.

    I want a VPN so I can remain private, you want to thwart that capability, so I'll be sure not to do business with you. Funny how that works, huh?

    1. Snake Silver badge

      Re: Good luck with that.

      The usual process: politicians using scare tactics of "moral turpitude" in order to tighten their hold on social power.

      So what else is new?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Not unxpected

    Modi and his supporters are trying to suppress the Muslim minority and VPN tracking facilitates this.

    Modi's BJP party is increasingly dominated by right wing radicals whose hate mongering and conspiracy theories rival QAnon (sample - Muslim men are seducing unsuspecting Hindu women into marriage and using them as child-producing factories to numerically overtaking Hindus).

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Not unxpected

      >Muslim men are seducing unsuspecting Hindu women into marriage and using them as child-producing factories to numerically overtaking Hindus).

      Not fair ! We got blamed for that first. Bloody Muslims coming over here stealing our jobs as official religous bogeymen

  3. A random security guy

    I wonder if their corrupt politicians can hide their money now

    Given that there are all these anti-corruption laws that companies like ours have to comply with, I am surprised at the amount of corruption that the politicians engage in. They live in palaces, have private planes, etc.

    I wonder where they are hiding their money ... probably somewhere around here as prime silicon valley property or other instruments.

    Maybe the VPN interception will be a good thing? Maybe make the IP addresses public?

    1. Kane
      Joke

      Re: I wonder if their corrupt politicians can hide their money now

      "Maybe the VPN interception will be a good thing? Maybe make the IP addresses public?"

      What, for those in power?

      Hahah!! You must be new here!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I wonder if their corrupt politicians can hide their money now

      Politicians often include legal exemptions for themselves.

      The Marsh Family's latest video sums it up nicely.

  4. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    One question : how do you track a VPN connection ?

    I mean, legally, of course. I live in France. Let's say I use a VPN to connect to Switzerland, then another one to connect to India, then I do my business.

    The EU has no right to check my Switzerland VPN, nor does India. India can well find out that there is a Swiss IP behind my India VPN connection, but the trail stops there unless India makes an official enquiry.

    I mean, we're not in GoldenEye territory here where the Indian government is going to have the image of the world map and a red line going from India to Switzerland to France, are we ? They still have to do something in Switzerland to find out that there is another connection from France, right ? And that something is illegal if India doesn't show a warrant, right ?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: One question : how do you track a VPN connection ?

      The weak link is if material you download can have an explicit link that your system will route through your normal connection. The Indian government would merely have to mandate that the Indian bank includes that in all its online interactions. Perfectly legal in their jurisdiction?

      A secure user system wouldn't name resolve or route any IP address except that of the VPN.

  5. Dan 55 Silver badge

    Why is there a problem?

    India must be easy to deal with compared to China, mustn't it?

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Why is there a problem?

      Yes no widespread government corruption in India because they have political parties and elections

      1. X5-332960073452
        Devil

        Re: Why is there a problem?

        Think you forgot the <sarc> tags

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: Why is there a problem?

          Their parliamentary system is very much based on Westminster but with parties linked with particular social castes and a leader who is all about personality and being the symbol of the country

          1. Dan 55 Silver badge
            Trollface

            Re: Why is there a problem?

            Still not seeing the difference from the UK.

          2. Barrie Shepherd

            Re: Why is there a problem?

            "Their parliamentary system is very much based on Westminster ....."

            Well we have plenty of examples closer to home as to how effective that is in stamping out corruption!

  6. MrBanana
    Coat

    VPN use case?

    I have a VPN set up, but it requires hopping around the various endpoints until I can find one that hasn't been spotted by BBC iPlayer yet. I watch shite UK TV for 20 minutes, and then think "Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set And Go Out And Do Something Less Boring Instead?".

    1. Kane
      Coat

      Re: VPN use case?

      I watch shite UK TV for 20 minutes, and then think "Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set And Go Out And Do Something Less Boring Instead?".

      Or watch Taskmaster re-runs instead.

      Mines the one with Little Alex Horne in the pocket.

  7. martinusher Silver badge

    Infrastructure....I think this comes into it somewhere....

    The images that you get from India aren't very encouraging. Ignoring the local politics and race/caste issues for the time being the overall impression is barely organized chaos. Its not the sorts of environment that's conducive to a sophisticated multi-step manufacturing process that needs an absolutely clean environment, a reliable transport infrastructure and a stable workforce. (Indians can obviously do the work but they also obviously prefer to do the work overseas if they have half a chance.)

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Infrastructure....I think this comes into it somewhere....

      And yet we manage to build stuff in Texas

  8. Dan from Chicago

    They don't need a research project to intercept VPN traffic, they just need to buy some COTS boxes. With very, very, very, few exceptions, there are no traditional VPNs any more (that use out of band key transmission, typically on hardware). Instead TLS/SSL is used to set up VPNs dynamically. The boxes intercept set up packets on each side and set up a pair of VPNs. The boxes receive your packet, decrypt it, (do whatever they want with that data, including sending decrypted copies somewhere) then re-encrypt it and forward it on to the site you "securely" connected to. For example https://www.sonicguard.com/Deep-Packet-Inspection.asp It's a "man in the middle" since the box sites between the two VPNs it has set up, one for each of two communicating computers.

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