UP Tech Next Summit: Talent, R&D and startup support key to India’s semiconductor push, say industry leaders

India has the opportunity to play a bigger role in the global semiconductor workforce as talent requirements continue to evolve, top industry stakeholders said during a panel discussion at the CNBC-TV18 and Moneycontrol UP Tech Next Electronics and Semiconductor Summit on December 2.

“We have so many technical universities. In Uttar Pradesh alone, there are more than 400 colleges, and there are many across other states. The task for us is how do we train these people,” said Ashok Chandak, President of India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA), an industry body that represents the semiconductor, electronics system design and manufacturing industry in the country.

The panel also comprised Vivek Tyagi, Managing Director and Country Manager at Analog Devices; Vyshali Sagar, Government, Policy and Public Affairs Lead at Micron India; and Wasi Uddin, Head of R&D at Kaynes Semicon.

Citing industry estimates, Chandak said the semiconductor sector could face a shortage of at least 700,000 workers globally by 2030, spanning design, manufacturing and other parts of the industry.

Outlining the roadmap to bridge this skills gap, Chandak explained the curriculum needs to be updated and modified so that it reflects the requirements of the future rather than yesterday. IESA is in talks with many institutes for this initiative, he noted.

The second step, Chandak noted, is developing a manufacturing-related training programme to prepare for the manufacturing scale-up that is expected to happen in the country.

"We recently conducted a five-day workshop and training programme with IIT BHU. We had 2,600 registrations, which was five times more than our initial estimate. So there is a lot of curiosity and interest in the semiconductor world among students, faculty and industry,” said Chandak, who also serves as the president of SEMI India.

Tyagi said that roughly 20 percent of the semiconductor design engineers in the world are operating from India. "It has traditionally been more driven by multinationals, but in the last five years, with MeitY’s design-linked incentive schemes, we’ve seen a mushrooming of Indian startups doing chip design here," he said.

“So while manufacturing is still a new activity and a long haul, and it will take time to get there, we should not forget that chip design has been India’s strength for many years, and we should continue to strengthen it," he added.

Tyagi hopes that India’s share of the global chip design workforce will rise from around 20 percent today to 25 or even 30 percent, calling it an important part of the global ecosystem.

Micron India's Sagar said what has worked for India has been a combination of infrastructure, talent, and strong policies. "But what got us here will not take us where we need to be over the next 20 years to become Viksit Bharat," she added.

Sagar noted that the country needs to focus more on design, development, innovation and co-innovation. "We already have R&D centers across the country, with more than 5,500 people who operate only on R&D," she said.

Another key lever is linking R&D grants to commercialisation, so that it leads to real commercial outcomes, Sagar said.

Kaynes Semicon’s Uddin said the sector’s growth will also rely on strengthening the rest of the ecosystem, and that policy needs to extend support to more semiconductor ecosystem players and ancillary firms. This includes specialty gases, chemicals, and lead frame molding compounds, among others.

"If investors do not want to open a fab, there are various other areas in the ecosystem to consider from an investment point of view, many of which have strong demand," he added.

For instance, Uddin pointed out that no one makes lead frames in India, an essential component in semiconductor packaging, and companies still have to import them. He estimates that nearly 90 percent of the OSATs (outsourced semiconductor assembly and test) setting up plants here rely on lead frame-based packages.

“There is a huge demand. More than 2.5 billion lead frame strips are required, and this is a market of more than Rs 3,000 crore,” he said.

Micron India’s Sagar highlighted the gaps that must be addressed as India moves into the next phase of its semiconductor push.

“We need to look at what more we can do with the startup ecosystem because we've moved beyond wafers or manufacturing. We also go deeper into IP creation, and while there is a domestic market to explore from a manufacturing perspective, we really need to see how we monetize IP and R&D. How do we bring more pathways to procurement for startups and strengthen the ecosystem? These pieces will need a greater push as we look toward ISM 2.0,” Sagar said.