As India accelerates its journey to become a global semiconductor powerhouse, industry leaders have called for urgent curriculum reform and coordinated skilling efforts to ensure the country can nurture and retain top semiconductor talent.

While the pace of technological advancements in chip design and fabrication is increasing, the talent gap, particularly in senior-grade expertise, threatens to slow the sector’s progress.

Industry experts assert that while India has the raw potential in terms of human capital and technology, there is an urgent need to rethink and realign the education system to prepare the future workforce for the rapidly evolving demands of the semiconductor industry. 

This requires a holistic approach, integrating academia, industry, and policymakers to create curricula that focus on hands-on skills, industry-specific knowledge, and long-term growth.

The Growing Semiconductor Industry

Utpal Shah, SVP of strategy and business development at Tata Electronics, highlighted the monumental scale of India’s semiconductor ambitions, from building the country’s first commercial 12-inch fab in Gujarat to packaging indigenous chips like the Shakti microprocessor. 

Yet, Shah pointed to a significant talent gap, especially in senior-grade expertise, that threatens to slow down this progress.

“We may produce a lot of engineers, but for the kind of complex semiconductor manufacturing we’re building, we need a sustained, skilled and highly specialised workforce,” he said.

Shah emphasised the importance of evolving academic training to match the industry’s pace and complexity in order to meet the projected need for over one lakh skilled professionals in the next decade. 

“We are in talks with institutions like IISc Bangalore, IIT Gandhinagar, Guwahati, and Bombay, but more must be done to move beyond general engineering to semiconductor-specific curriculum,” he noted.

Government Representatives Echo this Urgency 

Abhishek Singh, additional secretary at the electronics and information technology ministry (MeitY), underlined the need for industry-academia collaboration and highlighted the IndiaAI Mission and Indian Nanoelectronics Users’ Programme as frameworks already encouraging research and skilling.

“Nanoelectronics is central to AI, healthcare sensors, agriculture tech, and more. To stay ahead, we must align skilling efforts with the rapid technological changes in chip design and fabrication,” Singh asserted.

India relies heavily on R&D-grade semiconductor research at elite institutions like IITs and IISc, but converting this academic prowess into commercial-grade manufacturing is a major challenge. 

“It’s a journey of four to five years,” Shah said. “We need to build a talent pipeline now, or we risk falling behind.” He also stressed the need for immigration policy reform to enable global experts, many of Indian origin, to contribute locally.

Space applications also depend heavily on cutting-edge electronics. V Narayanan, chairperson at ISRO, praised India’s advances in cryogenic propulsion and miniaturised computing, much of which stems from advances in nanoelectronics.

“Without electronics, there is no space programme,” he said, underscoring the interconnectedness of scientific ambition and talent availability.

“At least in the next five years, the import of electronic components in our country should come down drastically,” Narayanan asserted. Currently, 90% of the components in ISRO’s launch vehicles are indigenised. The remaining 10% are imported, mostly electronics.

As semiconductor manufacturing becomes a strategic pillar for India’s economic and technological future, technology and capital may be secured, but without a robust talent base, the foundation remains incomplete. 

A reimagined curriculum, co-created by academia, industry, and policymakers, is the need of the hour.

The Quantum Industry as Well

The quantum industry feels that higher education needs to be highlighted. In an interview with AIM, L Venkata Subramaniam, IBM quantum India leader, shared insights on the need for a tailored curriculum for emerging technologies like quantum computing.

He emphasised the importance of an industry-aligned curriculum in raising skilled talent for the semiconductor and quantum sectors. He noted that while India has a robust academic foundation, the existing educational models often focus more on theoretical knowledge than practical, hands-on skills. This gap in targeted education, especially in emerging technologies like quantum computing, needs to be addressed to meet the growing industry demand.

Subramaniam further stressed that the current educational system has traditionally overlooked practical, industry-relevant experiences. “Most of the education has been very theoretical, and when it comes to hands-on, being able to build something has traditionally been missing in India,” he remarked.

To overcome this, IBM has been hosting initiatives like summer schools and hackathons in quantum computing, aimed at bridging this divide. He elaborated on IBM’s efforts to engage with educational institutions and startups to create a more applied learning environment.

“From our point of view at IBM, for the past four years, we have supported going one step further. We do support learning the theory, but also encourage the students to solve some relevant real-life problems.”

This proactive approach can serve as a model for curriculum reform, equipping students with the practical skills to thrive in the rapidly evolving semiconductor and quantum sectors.

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