At the second Semicon India Future Design roadshow held in Bengaluru IISc campus, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that India plans to produce a minimum of 85,000 global semiconductor talent in the next two years. 

Earlier today, Chandrasekhar said that they see their entities, enterprises and engineers playing a deep, significant and decisive role in how the future of semiconductor design and manufacturing would be shaped. He said that the government is committed to being a catalyst for the success of such ventures. 

Chandrasekhar also inaugurated the innovation centre set up by a joint partnership with TCS and Renesas Electronics. He said that the centre set up by local partners would be developing next-generation devices and products for the growing global and Indian semiconductor ecosystem.

Read: Chip War: World Needs India More Than Ever 

The chip-hungry world needs India as much as India needs them—if not more. Recently, the United States announced a strategic partnership with the country with a focus on critical and emerging technology (iCET). The aim was to strengthen the semiconductor supply chains, support the growth of semiconductor design and manufacturing in India on mature technology nodes and packaging, and cultivate a skilled workforce. 

The US looks to benefit from India to fill the widening gap between the demand and supply of microelectronics engineers that has been slowing its reshoring plans. The shortage of tech talent has been a major concern for countries worldwide. Just as the software workforce from India has dominated the global industries, India will soon latch onto the hardware talent. 

Read: The Missing Puzzle to India’s Semiconductor Ambition?

Almost all major companies, including Samsung, Micron, Lam Research, NXP and Applied Materials have substantial semiconductor research and development investments in India. These investments are expected to rise and are already leveraging the talent available here. In fact, India is a global leader in engineering design and R&D. It has a favourable demographic advantage with a young workforce and a significant number of technologically-aligned individuals. However, expanding its potential to manufacturing requires more. Unlike the IT sector, the lack of awareness and availability of job options have been some major hurdles facing the industry. 

In addition, government schemes like Skill India and industry bodies like IESA are attempting to bring a change. Recently, under its Skill India programme, the government announced setting up of multiple international centres across the country, which will skill the youth for international opportunities. 

Read: India has the Magic Lamp for Semiconductor Industry

At one of the centre launches, Chandrasekhar said that India would be launching future labs to channel R&D capital for semiconductor and deep tech development. He said that these labs will embed with C-DAC and will encourage industry and academic collaborations. 

Last year, at IEEE MAPCON 2022, Chandrasekhar said that the Indian government has been giving capital support for research and development efforts for India to take the leap from being a tech consumer and back-office support to becoming a leading tech producer in the world. He said that skilled engineers are now being encouraged to innovate and start their own ventures and that the government would support such endeavours.