Fueling innovation and tech talent, India enters the global semiconductor elite as Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurates Renesas’ 3nm chip design centres in Noida and Bengaluru.
On Tuesday, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, inaugurated the country’s first 3-nanometre (nm) chip design centres in Noida and Bengaluru, operated by Renesas Electronics India Private Limited.
“Designing at 3nm is truly next-generation. We have done 7nm and 5nm earlier, but this marks a new frontier,” said Vaishnaw, highlighting the global significance of this technological milestone. These facilities position India among the leading nations in semiconductor innovation.
The Minister spoke about India’s holistic semiconductor strategy spanning design, fabrication, ATMP (assembly, testing, marking, and packaging), and supply chains.
Citing confidence at international forums like Davos and increasing investments from firms such as Applied Materials and Lam Research, he called the Noida centre “a critical step towards developing a pan-India ecosystem that harnesses the rich talent available across the country.”
To strengthen talent development, a new semiconductor learning kit for engineering students was also announced. Over 270 institutions already equipped with advanced electronic design automation (EDA) tools under the India Semiconductor Mission will now receive hardware kits.
“This integration of software and hardware learning will create truly industry-ready engineers,” he said.
The event also saw the signing of two memoranda of understanding (MOUs) between Renesas and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) under the MeitY Chips to Startup (C2S) programme.
One MOU supports startups with product engineering tools, while the other promotes industry-academia collaboration with experiential learning resources.
Renesas CEO Hidetoshi Shibata described India as “a strategic cornerstone,” reaffirming plans to expand operations and support over 250 academic institutions and 15 startups. “India’s talent strength and shared Indo-Japan strategic interests will help reinvent the global semiconductor lifecycle,” he said.
Renesas also unveiled new office spaces in Bengaluru and Noida, consolidating R&D, engineering, and business teams.
The Bengaluru site is now Renesas’ largest in India, while the Noida facility will focus on high-performance compute solutions, particularly for automotive applications.
According to MeitY, the developments mark a key milestone in India’s ambitions to become a global semiconductor hub under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision.
