Government school students in Chennai will be the first in India to build a project on a developer board
Mindgrove Technologies has launched AGNI, which it describes as India’s first indigenous developer board powered by an indigenously designed chip, in partnership with AtumX. The initial deployment will cover five government schools in Chennai and is expected to reach around 1,000 students, with support from the Atal Innovation Mission.
The board is based on Mindgrove’s Secure IoT System-on-Chip, while AtumX has adapted the platform for classroom use through a student-friendly integrated development environment (IDE) that allows learners to progress from block-based coding to AI development.
The companies said the launch addresses a long-standing gap in India’s electronics ecosystem, where students, engineers, and OEMs have traditionally relied on imported chips and development boards for learning and prototyping. AGNI is intended to provide an indigenous starting point for product evaluation, development, and deployment.
Shashwath T R, co-founder and CEO of Mindgrove Technologies, said the company built the board to change the starting point for Indian engineers. He added that the platform is designed and manufactured in India and is intended to strengthen the country’s semiconductor talent pipeline and ecosystem as more engineers and OEMs adopt it.
Mindgrove said the initiative is part of a broader strategy to create a pipeline that begins in classrooms and extends to engineers and OEMs ahead of its upcoming chip launches, positioning the developer board as a foundation for future semiconductor adoption in India.
Akash J, co-founder and CEO of AtumX, said students who learn on Indian-designed hardware today are more likely to carry that ecosystem into college projects, patents, and future startups, calling AGNI the beginning of a broader indigenous technology journey.
The Chennai deployment is being positioned as the first step toward building a domestic semiconductor ecosystem. With backing from the Atal Innovation Mission, the rollout is expected to expand to government schools in additional Indian cities in the coming months.
