India’s talent has long been recognised and admired, not only within the country but also on the global stage. Over the past year, industry professionals have engaged in multiple debates and discussions regarding the shortage of skilled workers and the urgent need for talent development.

Discussions around the need for strengthening India’s talent pool have often touched upon the importance of more specialised training, along with tailored curricula in schools and colleges. This theme resurfaced recently at the SEMICON India 2025 event in Delhi, where a panel addressed the challenges and solutions associated with this. 

The discussion, led and moderated by professor Manoj Choudhary, vice chancellor of the Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, brought together key leaders from across the ecosystem. 

While this has been the larger debate surrounding skilled talent, in a recent exclusive interview with AIM, Sameer Wasson, CEO of MIPS, pushed back against the notion that India lacks skilled talent. “Nowhere else on the planet can you grow as rapidly as you can in India. This is not a cost statement. This is just about the talent available,” he said.

Opening the panel, Rajat Moona, director at IIT Gandhinagar, stressed that while there has been a larger debate on India’s aim to skill talent rapidly, even described as an 85,000-person requirement under India’s Chip to Startup Programme, the demand remains far greater. “We need a lot more,” he asserted. 

Teach Chips in School

Moona pushed for early hardware literacy. “If we actually do this right in the middle school and high school, we should be able to teach them how to make a microprocessor.” He urged schools to treat practical hardware training like coding.

He added that India should normalise hands-on chip design in classrooms, thereby encouraging students should try building a microcontroller or microprocessor in school.

Moona further argued that the original domestic target understates the scale of global demand. “Around 1.5 million people worldwide are needed in the semiconductor sector; that is not a very small number.” 

Contributing to the discussion, SD Sudarsan, executive director at Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), noted, “Today, the top nine or 10 tools are all available under one roof, and providers have been extremely cooperative,” he claimed. Training initiatives have also accelerated, with more than 200 instructional enhancement programmes conducted and over 60,000 students trained so far. 

“We expect to achieve the target within the year. So 85,000 will be done and dusted.” He added that instead, India might need at least 3,00,000 chipmakers, which is significantly more than the projected number. 

Skills From Tier 2 Cities to Advanced Labs

Meanwhile, MM Tripathi, DG of the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), the skilling arm of MeitY, described how the institute trains around one million people annually in IT and electronics. “A major portion of this skilling is also related to electronics, primarily on semiconductor design part and other electronics design, embedded systems, VLSI design and other electronics technology,” he said.

NIELIT currently runs 56 centres across the country, with many located in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Its new university programmes in BTech, MTech and PhD are designed to align with industry requirements closely. “From the very early stage, we started working with the industry. We invited the industry to participate in the development of our curriculum. And many industries have responded very nicely,” Tripathi added, citing collaborations with Tata Electronics and Infineon.

He also announced the upcoming launch of a digital platform in September to provide virtual labs and open-source chip design training. “It will democratise the whole semiconductor design process,” he said.

Cryogenic Chip Design?

Sudarsan highlighted the rapid progress in tool access and training. He credited vendors and ministries for rallying support.

CDAC has also intensified faculty training efforts. “Today, we have conducted more than 200 instructional enhancement programmes.” Many of these run daily across campuses. Progress in fabrication-linked design has been strong as well, with a sharp rise in student tape-outs

This year alone, with the support of industry partners, CDAC says it has already guaranteed 50 chips. Adding to the 20 chips revealed on the first day of the event by Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and PM Narendra Modi, the centre expects another 75 by year-end. Sudarsan claims this would be achieved in a single academic year by students.

Sudarsan said the five-year pipeline goal is well within reach. He also noted that India has over 600 institutions offering VLSI courses.

He also flagged the expanding scope of design work. “We are moving beyond traditional silicon.” Teams now have access to “cryogenic chip design”.

On global programmes, Shari Liss, vice president for global workforce development and initiatives at SEMI, pointed to new funding. “In the US, we were just funded by the SEMI Foundation to build a national network for microelectronics education. It’s a $200 million grant.”

Call for a Semiconductor University

As the academic discussion drew to a close, the panel explored the idea of India establishing a sector-specific university. Tripathi revealed that NIELIT is already moving in this direction by setting up specialised campuses, including a centre of excellence in advanced packaging in Guwahati and fabrication-focused facilities in Gujarat.

Moona stressed that India must think of itself not just as a service provider but as a product nation. “It is also equally important to say that others’ dependence on us will increase,” he said, pointing to opportunities in local design and manufacturing that can integrate into the global supply chain.

Chips Need Collaboration

Adding to the conversation, Rene Cortez, head of quality at CG Power, stressed the importance of aligning education with real-world manufacturing demands, noting that building a semiconductor ecosystem should follow a structured path beginning with R&D and design centres. Drawing comparisons with how Japan developed its semiconductor base decades ago, he argued that India must strengthen its supply chains.

Cortez also called for reforms in engineering education, including three years of foundational training, followed by an immersive fourth year at premier institutions like IIT Bombay, and a fifth year dedicated to practical qualifications before entering the workforce.

Bringing in a global perspective, Liss highlighted the critical role of international collaboration between academia, government, and industry. Workforce development, she warned, is “not an easy component to lift” in this world. While India’s strong base of design engineers was acknowledged, she argued that greater emphasis should be placed on manufacturing and product development.

Liss also noted that technical skills alone will not suffice. Creativity, communication, teamwork and cooperation, she said, are equally essential if industry needs are to be fully met.

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