According to Jaya Jagadish, country head and senior vice-president Silicon Design Engineering for India, at US chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, the initiative aligns closely with the recommendations of the India Semiconductor Mission’s Semiconductor Talent Building Committee (TBC).

“We (at TBC) looked at the demand and supply for each sub-field of the semiconductor industry for the next 10 years. Semiconductor design is more mature than manufacturing, and may see 15% growth during this time. In semiconductor manufacturing, India has been attracting investments, leading to creation of the first roadmap. We used the factors to find gaps in each sub-sector, and realized that while we may have more than enough engineering graduates every year, the real gap is in skills. We thus came up with both short- and long-term plans to address the skill set gaps, which were submitted to the central government in a 70-page recommendation. An implementation committee has been set up for it, with the All India Council for Technical Education chairman T.G. Sitharam heading it. This has led to about 300 colleges offering VLSI majors in their curriculum,” he added.

VLSI is a fundamental engineering process for chip-making, and is used to create processors to power most gadgets and appliances with an integrated circuit on a single semiconductor chip. This process will be key to creating a skilled semiconductor manufacturing workforce for India, which is presently seeking investments from global chip-makers to set up assembly, testing and eventually fabrication facilities.

On 22 June, US chip-maker Micron became the first company to officially announce its semiconductor assembly and testing plant. The foundation-laying ceremony of first phase of the 500,000-sq. ft chip testing facility in Sanand, Gujarat, was held on 23 September. Union information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told Mint that two more chip facility proposals were in the pipeline for the Centre’s approval, and the Micron facility is likely to deliver the first made in India chips by December 2024.

The Centre is offering production-linked incentives of up to $10 billion for chip-making facilities to attract companies to establish semiconductor supply chains in India as a part of their China-plus-one policy.

TBC’s upskilling initiatives seek to cater to this demand, said Jagadish. “India produces 0.5 million engineering graduates every year, whom we can use to build skilled manpower. This, in turn, will make India a semiconductor talent hub for the world,” she added.

AMD on 28 July announced a $400 million investment to expand its R&D centre for engineering in India, which will seek to grow its semiconductor talent base, and expand its employee base here. Jagadish said AMD has around 7,000 employees.

Other firms are also investing in expanding their semiconductor workforce in India. On 23 June, US-based Lam Research announced a 10-year plan to nurture 60,000 engineers skilled in semiconductor engineering in partnership with institutes across India.

On 28 July, the company announced the first pilot commencement of its chip engineering training through its virtual simulator platform, in partnership with Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

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Updated: 02 Oct 2023, 11:24 PM IST