India accounts for 20% of world’s chip design engineers: Report

Global majors including Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia, Broadcom and MediaTek run large R&D and design centres in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Noida, giving India a central role in chip development.

India has established itself as a crucial hub in the global semiconductor design chain, with nearly 20 percent of the world’s chip design engineers based in the country, states a Bastion Research report.

Global majors including Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia, Broadcom and MediaTek run large R&D and design centres in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Noida, giving India a central role in chip development.

The report highlights a clear division of responsibilities in the global semiconductor ecosystem.

While U.S. engineers typically determine the what and why of chipmaking, architecture, features, performance targets and product strategy, Indian teams focus on the how.

Engineers in India handle the translation of architecture into logic, chip testing and simulation, power and speed optimisation, as well as driver and firmware development, as per the report. They also contribute to refining the industry’s electronic design automation (EDA) tools.

Far from being a top-down structure, the study described this as a complementary partnership, U.S. teams shape strategy, while India delivers scale and precision in execution.

Meanwhile, on the policy front, the government has sought to boost the domestic semiconductor ecosystem through the Semicon India Programme (ISM 1.0), launched in 2021 with incentives worth Rs 76,000 crore to attract global manufacturers.

Although India has yet to set up large-scale semiconductor fabrication facilities, its vast engineering base, design expertise and government push are steadily positioning the country as a significant force in the global semiconductor value chain.

(With inputs from ANI)