India has emerged as a global leader in semiconductor design workforce, witnessing remarkable growth. Most of the leading international companies have established R&D (Research and Development) and innovation centres in India, drawn by the country’s exceptional design talent.

As per the ‘SemiconIndia Future Skills Talent Committee report’, about 1.25 Lakh semiconductor design engineers were working in India in the year 2022. According to other estimates, such as the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA)/Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report on ‘Emerging Resilience in the Semiconductor Supply Chain’ (published in May 2024), Indian engineers accounts to about 19% of global design engineers.

According to the BCG SIA report on ‘Emerging Resilience in the Semiconductor Supply Chain’ (published in May 2024), 7% of chip design facilities are present in India as a percentage of global facilities.

Boosting India’s Semiconductor Ecosystem

Government is focused on its objective of building the overall semiconductor design and manufacturing ecosystem with an emphasis on fostering R&D in semiconductor area in the country. MeitY supports R&D projects in the area of semiconductors at academic institutions, research organizations, and startup companies through a dedicated R&D Scheme. Some of them includes but not limited to the following- nanotechnology, semiconductor materials, semiconductor processes, chip design, semiconductor IP Cores etc.

Year-wise budget spent by MeitY since the year 2014 in the area of R&D in Electronics including Semiconductor R&D can be referred to in Table-I

Year-wise budget spent by MeitY since the year 2014 in the area of R&D in Electronics including Semiconductor R&D

 

#	Year	Funds spent on semiconductor R&D (₹ in Crore)
1	2014-15	183.52
2	2015-16	114.41
3	2016-17	116.00
4	2017-18	100.93
5	2018-19	178.91
6	2019-20	427.71
7	2020-21	420.91
8	2021-22	502.04
9	2022-23	349.18
10	2023-24	251.00
11	2024-25	215.00 (till date)

Table 1

Government of India has approved the ‘Modified Programme for Semiconductors and Display Fab Ecosystem’ with an outlay of ₹76,000 crore in order to catalyse the semiconductor & display ecosystem in the country. Up to 2.5% of the outlay of the Programme is earmarked for meeting the R&D, skill development and training requirements for the development of semiconductor ecosystem in India. Additionally, ₹1000 Crore has been earmarked for the Design Linked Incentive Scheme under the Programme for supporting fabless chip design industry, including semiconductor R&D activities.

Government of India acknowledges the importance of nurturing world-class talent to build a robust semiconductor ecosystem, recognizing that capacity-building initiatives, and skill development programs to address workforce gaps is the foundation of this effort.

Building Talent for the Future

MeitY supports various capacity development and skill development programmes at academic institutions and R&D organizations. Some of these initiatives of Government of India include, but not limited to the following - SMDP-C2SD (Special Manpower Development Programme for Chips to System Design) (Year 2014-21), Indian Nanoelectronics User Programme (INUP) (year 2014-2019), INUP Idea to Innovation initiated in year 2021 and Chips to Start-up (C2S) Programme initiated in year 2022 etc.

Year-wise budget spent by MeitY since the year 2014 for capacity building and skill development in the area of Semiconductors.

 

#	Year	Funds spent on capacity building and skill development in semiconductor area(₹ in Crore)
	2014-15	37.62
	2015-16	15.79
	2016-17	28.80
	2017-18	40.69
	2018-19	13.51
	2019-20	24.16
	2022-23	38.90
	2023-24	28.95
	2024-25	69.84 (till date)

Table 2

 

This information was given by the Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology Shri Jitin Prasada in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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Dharmendra Tewari/Kshitij Singha/Nayan

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