India To Deepen Its Chip Ecosystem The Indian market for semiconductors will be driven by three sectors—smartphones and wearables, automotive components, and computing and data storage.
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India's semiconductor aspirations are taking a new dimension. The Semiconductor Mission 2.0, will pivot India from a fab-first mindset to an end to end semiconductor strategy, said joint secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Sushil Pal. However, right steps towards talent development will be key to success.
Recently, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that India's chipmaking capabilities are set to be at par with US, China, and other major producers by 2032. The India Semiconductor Mission with $10 billion outlay boosts local manufacturing, design, and talent.
Pal said ISM 2.0 will move beyond fabs and ATMP units to focus on ecosystem play, on chips, on modules, on design, and on R&D. This will lead to domestic demand for Indian-made chips. Pal was speaking at the UP Tech Next Electronics & Semiconductor Summit.
India's semiconductor journey has been gaining strong momentum under the Semicon India Programme. So far, the government of India has approved 10 projects in areas of strategic importance, including high-volume fabrication units (Fabs), 3D heterogeneous packaging, compound semiconductors (including Silicon Carbide – SiC), and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSATs).
However, there is a global challenge as the semiconductor industry is staring at a shortage of at least 700,000 skilled workers by 2030. This void can be tapped into as India ramps up its chip manufacturing and design ambitions. India is pushing ahead with large-scale investments under the semiconductor mission and state-level incentive policies.
The Indian government's initiatives such as the PLI and DLI schemes are providing crucial incentives and support for semiconductor development, however, to meet the surge in talent demand, focus should be on building capacity in chip designing and manufacturing.
Public private partnership initiatives have consistently made a skilled talent pool available, supporting the talent requirement of electronics manufacturing companies.
India is far behind chip industry leaders Taiwan and South Korea and nations such as the US, China and Japan, which are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build domestic chipmaking capacities.
While there are various government initiatives, PPP projects and industry-led programmes to provide skill-based training for jobs in the electronics sector, the expected rise in the supply chain localisation will increase the demand for developing a talent pool with a highly skilled workforce. For instance, to support the semiconductor manufacturing units, there is a demand for 10,000-13,000 skilled semiconductor engineers which is to be met by 2027. Having realized this, the GoI is already considering revamping the Skill India Mission which aims to train the Indian workforce on future-ready skills.
Forecasts predict that the Indian market for semiconductors will reach over $55 billion by 2026, with demand largely driven by three sectors—smartphones and wearables, automotive components, and computing and data storage.
