“India represents today tremendous market for the application & use of technology. It represents a country where there is tremendous depth in innovation ecosystem & a vibrant ecosystem of performing entrepreneurs. Government policy & Government capital is going to catalyse these 2 elements & create a sustainable ecosystem that will serve the world’s demand & India’s need in the coming decade” said Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology, Mr. Rajeev Chandrasekhar at the 35th International VLSI Design & Embedded Systems Conference 2022, organized under the aegis of VLSI Society of India together with Industry partners. The theme for this year’s conference was Silicon Catalysing Computing, Communication & Cognitive Convergence.

Sharing the vision of Prime Minister that has led India to an unprecedented inflection point in terms of growth & expansion of Technology sector, Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar quoted that “ on August 15, 2021, Prime Minister laid out a vision for all of us who are deeply passionate about Indian technology & innovation ecosystem. He termed the next 10 years as India’s ‘Techade’ - summarising in one phrase, many things for many people. It talks about the direction of our economy,  direction of technology ecosystem & the power of technology changing the way Government functions and transforming the lives of its citizens.

Talking about the impact of Covid Pandemic and India’s measured response to it, he added “ India’s performance during the Covid Pandemic has redefined India amongst the world observers as a country that has leveraged technology for building a Resilient Economy, Resilient Government & Resilient Citizenry. India has received the highest ever FDI, created UNICORNS at the rate of over 3 a month during the year 2021. “

Mentioning about the opportunities in the electronics sector, Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar added that “It is clear today that we have a runway of opportunities in the ESDM (Electronics System Design and Manufacturing) space, in the embedded design space, and of course, the semiconductor space. Our ambitions specifically to the semiconductor space are very clear. It involves big investment in fabs, which is natural - given the geopolitics, but also in the ecosystem around innovation, design and systems. “

He also informed how India is essentially investing government capital in creating skill talent, from research and design engineering side to the factory, testing, and packaging workforce side, while encouraging entrepreneurship and startups in the design and innovation ecosystem. The Government is Narrow Focussing on its own design & developing efforts around the future roadmap of Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC – V)RISC V & other open source Instruction Set Architecture( ISA) systems.

To conclude, Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar affirmed “for somebody with over 3 decades of experience in technology & entrepreneurship, I have never felt more confident about this moment of India. It is coming together of various factors including the leadership & vision of our Prime Minister that has brought us to this inflection point - an opportunity to grow & expand beyond the traditional technology capabilities.

RKJ/M