India will place semiconductor design, talent development and ecosystem-building at the core of its next phase of chip policy under India Semiconductor Mission 2.0, as it seeks to move up the global value chain from legacy manufacturing to advanced technology, Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Vaishnaw said the upcoming mission, announced in the budget, would sharpen Centre’s focus on design capabilities while deepening its talent pipeline and expanding supporting infrastructure such as equipment, materials and advanced electronics manufacturing.
“Very soon we’ll have the Semicon 2.0 mission. We will be focusing on design as the topmost priority, equipment and materials as the next priority, and talent to a much deeper level,” Vaishnaw said.
The comments came as Qualcomm Technologies announced the successful tape-out of a 2-nanometre semiconductor design, work that involved engineering efforts in India. While India does not yet manufacture chips at such advanced nodes, the government is positioning high-end design work as a strategic foundation for future manufacturing ambitions.
Vaishnaw said India’s role in semiconductors was undergoing a structural shift, with companies now undertaking end-to-end product development in the country.
“Gone are those days when most of the development was back-office work. Today, right from customer product definition to designing the final silicon, getting it taped out and validated, that entire process is being done in India,” he said.
Talent At The Centre
A key pillar of ISM 2.0 will be talent, with the government working to create system-level design capabilities and address global shortages in semiconductor engineers.
India had initially set a target of training 85,000 semiconductor engineers over 10 years, Vaishnaw said, but has already trained about 67,000 engineers in four years through programmes spanning 315 universities and colleges.
“Students are designing chips, taping them out and getting the final product validated. Not many countries in the world have this kind of model,” he said.
Vaishnaw added that global industry leaders had told him India could help bridge a large part of the estimated one-million-person talent gap in the global semiconductor industry.
Ecosystem And Manufacturing Roadmap
While reiterating that fabrication remained a long-term goal, the minister said India would move “very systematically” from current 28-nanometre manufacturing plans towards more advanced nodes.
“We decided to learn how to walk before running,” he said, adding that India had defined a clear path to 7-nanometre manufacturing as part of the next phase of the mission.
ISM 2.0 will also focus on strengthening the broader ecosystem, including advanced printed circuit boards (PCBs), electronics components, data centres and AI infrastructure, which the government sees as interlinked with chip design and manufacturing. For fiscal year 2026-27, ISM 2.0 has been allocated Rs 1,000 crore.
Vaishnaw described the semiconductor push as a “multi-decade journey” requiring a long-term roadmap to ensure sustained growth. “This is not a short-term effort. It should be a 20-year roadmap so that the country keeps developing capabilities in this industry,” he said.
Central government has rolled out production-linked incentives (PLI) and policy reforms in recent years to attract global chipmakers and electronics firms, as it looks to reduce import dependence and position itself as a trusted partner in global semiconductor supply chains.
Launched in 2021, the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) was rolled out to build a domestic semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem, with a focus on attracting chip fabrication, assembly and packaging units while supporting chip design through fiscal incentives. The initial phase of the mission carried an outlay of about Rs 76,000 crore. Under ISM so far, the government has approved around 10 semiconductor projects, including one wafer fabrication plant and multiple assembly, testing and packaging (ATMP/OSAT) units, with cumulative investment commitments of roughly Rs 1.6 lakh crore. |
