Eyeing to position the youth for global semiconductor opportunities, India’s Chip to Startups mission is hopeful that native talent will respond to the trillion-dollar industry.
India has reported substantial progress in building a skilled workforce for the semiconductor sector, with the government’s Chips to Startups (C2S) programme moving closer to its target of training 85,000 engineers over a decade.
Announcing this update, the Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said that in just four years, the initiative has already made strides. The scheme, part of the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), focuses on training, upskilling and workforce development to strengthen the country’s technological base.
According to Vaishnaw, advanced electronic design automation (EDA) tools from global firms, including Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens, Renesas, Ansys, and AMD, have been deployed across 315 academic institutions nationwide.
These resources allow students to gain practical experience in chip design, with fabrication and testing carried out at the Semiconductor Laboratory in Mohali. The programme has become the world’s largest open-access EDA initiative, recording more than 18.5 million hours of tool usage.
Students from diverse regions, spanning Assam to Gujarat and Kashmir to Kanyakumari, are now actively engaged in semiconductor design. Vaishnaw described this as a milestone in building India’s technological capability and self-reliance.
He also highlighted the global demand for skilled professionals, noting that as the semiconductor industry expands from its current valuation of US$800-900 billion to an estimated US$2 trillion, nearly two million trained workers will be required. This, he said, presents significant employment opportunities for India’s youth.
Looking ahead, the government plans to extend the programme under India Semiconductor Mission 2.0, expanding participation from 315 to 500 institutions. The aim is to create a continuous pipeline of talent in design, fabrication, packaging and testing across all states.
