In a significant move towards bolstering India’s position in the global semiconductor industry, the government is set to launch the Bharat Semiconductor Research Centre, a collaborative effort involving academia, the government, the private sector, and startups. Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, announced during a virtual address at the All India Research Scholars’ Summit (AIRSS) 2024 at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT) on Monday.

“The crowning development, in the context of this research summit, is going to be the soon-to-be-announced Bharat Semiconductor Research Centre, which will be a global standard academia-government-private sector-start-up partnered institution,” Chandrasekhar stated. The Centre aims to initially co-locate with the Semiconductor Complex Limited, eventually evolving into an independent entity to compete and cooperate with leading global semiconductor research organisations.

Chandrasekhar highlighted the Centre’s ambition to establish itself alongside prestigious institutions such as IMEC, MIT Microelectronics in the USA, and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan. He emphasised the Centre’s role in fostering a vibrant ecosystem, engaging top universities and colleges in India to collaborate on various research areas, from materials science to system innovation.

Reflecting on the rapid growth of India’s semiconductor ecosystem, which began just two years ago, the minister noted, “In January 2022, from the prism of the semiconductor ecosystem, we had a limited or non-existent footprint in what was turning out to be one of the most critical and crucial sectors in terms of the overall resilience of the global economy.” He credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for transforming India into a semiconductor nation for the ecosystem’s vibrant and fast-paced development.

Chandrasekhar also pointed out the significant strides made in design innovation for chips and devices, stating that India has “made up for 75 years of lost opportunities.” The burgeoning product ecosystem in the automotive, industrial, telecom, and computing sectors is leveraging India’s advancements in design innovation. Furthermore, the minister highlighted the arrival of process and manufacturing know-how and technologies in India, with proposals from global companies like Tower Semiconductor, Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation of Taiwan, and Micron to set up characterisation, testing, and manufacturing units in the country.

Establishing the Bharat Semiconductor Research Centre marks a pivotal step in India’s journey towards becoming a key player in the global semiconductor industry, promising to accelerate innovation and foster collaboration across sectors.