Bengaluru: India will have five fabs (semiconductor fabrication plants) by next 10 years, which would need about one lakh skilled professionals, said Utpal Shah, VP at Tata Electronics leading Strategy, Business Development, and Foundry business, on Thursday.

According to him, this is no trivial issue and needs a targeted workforce, a targeted curriculum and tailored programmes for semiconductor at all levels.

Shah was addressing the inaugural session of India's first Nano Electronics Roadshow, organised by Nanotechnology Initiatives Division of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), in partnership with Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, and IIT Guwahati.

“Our call to action for the universities and academia here is to also think about how we can create more and more tailored programmes for semiconductor at all levels, at the operators and technicians' level, at the fresh graduates' level, at the midline managers' level. …we have to create more and more of these kinds of ready professionals that can immediately jump into our workforce and hit the road running,” added Shah.

He also said semiconductor indigenising and semiconductor manufacturing are very essential for a country like India, adding that Tata Electronics has already started the trend by establishing the very first fab and very first indigenous OSAC.

Anand Ramamoorthy, VP & MD of Micron India, which is building an ecosystem for research and collaboration in the field of semiconductor, said while Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme by MeitY was a wonderful start to incubating the semiconductor startup ecosystem, he wanted the government to ensure that the next version of DLI is even more strongly connected to foundational and applied problems in the industry.

“A typical startup would need capital, talent and a good idea. Semiconductor startups need one more dimension. They are in a very tough market. It's very difficult to mention what your piece of silicon will do, like, a year or two down the line. And so, it needs a lot more support, which is why this first DLI scheme was powerful in creating awareness,” added Ramamoorthy.

He also said although what India has built in the last 20 to 30 years is impressive, it is not enough.

“The question we have to ask is that of the 25-odd percent of engineering R&D that we have in the country, how much is truly the brain power for the next generation architecture, the next edition interface, the next generation R&D material innovation? The sad answer is not much yet,” said Ramamoorthy.

He added that we have to make sure that many of our engineers are actually “inventing and innovating in a very material way”.

S Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, who inaugurated the roadshow, said the ministry is focussing on aligning various efforts to advance the India Semiconductor Mission, one of the world's most extensive subsidy and grant programmes.

“With nearly 70-75% of investments in major semiconductor facilities coming from taxpayer money, every Indian is a stakeholder in this mission. In fact, 20% of the workforce in semiconductor design is in India. Ensuring its success is a collective responsibility shared by the government, industry, and academia,” he added.

Diving into the vision and significance of the Roadshow, Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, MeitY, talked about the importance of industry-academia collaboration.

“Under the India AI mission, through the INUP programme and other initiatives, startups, entrepreneurs, and researchers are solving real-world problems, driving India to the forefront of cutting-edge technology,” he added.

He added that the six Nano Centres established by MeitY at IISc and IITs are driving India's edge in the deep-tech race, fostering breakthrough technologies and strategic advancements.

The roadshow saw participation from seven colleges. It showcased over 100 intellectual properties (IPs), over 50 groundbreaking technologies, and the innovation of over 35 promising startups.

Other prominent dignitaries included V Narayanan, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation, Rangesh Raghavan, India Head, Lam Research, V Ramagopal Rao, Vice-Chancellor, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani), Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, CEO, Anusandhan National Research Foundation and Govindan Rangarajan, Director, IISc. PTI JR