Watch: IT Minister's Masterclass On India's Semiconductor Ecosystem

New Delhi:

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw explained how his ministry is working to create an all-inclusive semi-conductor ecosystem in India in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make-in-India” vision.

In a little over four-minute-long video, the minister charts up the plan to develop a comprehensive semiconductor setup in India, complete with a talent pool of thousands and a research system encompassing over a hundred universities in the country.

During his media interaction today after the cabinet approved three more semiconductor units, the minister laid out the plan on a whiteboard, drawing up each step with a marker in great detail.

“There are four main components in the entire process – Design, fabrication, or FAB, assembly-testing-marking-packaging, or ATMP, and electronics manufacturing, or circuit,” the minister explained.

“The primary thing we are developing for this is a talent pool. The second big thing we are doing is research and development, or R&D,” he added. 

What steps are being taken to augment the talent pool and for research and development? The minister explained: “The most difficult and the most expensive tools, called Electronic Design Automation, or EDA, tools, are supplied by Cadence, Synopsys, and Siemens. These are very expensive. If you go to buy one, you will have to shell out Rs 10 crore – Rs 15 crore for just one license. So, we have spoken to these three companies and have taken their EDA tools and given them to 104 universities in the country.”

“We have given the license and login to not just the IITs, but also to the tier-II and tier-III universities so they can expose and train their students on how to use these tools live and not just in theory. The students can now take up a project and design a new mobile chip and make it. This will give birth to new start-ups and will add to our talent pool. This talent pool of some three lakhs will feed into Design, FAB, and ATMP aspects,” he said.

The programme is a very comprehensive one and hence, the foundation is very important, the minister said, adding, “What we have been able to achieve in two years, many countries have not been able to do that in five years. “

“We have the Design and the ATMP components and have started work on developing FAB. Now, Applied Materials is the largest manufacturer of equipment. They have started setting up a plant in India. They are designing in India and manufacturing in India. So, all of this will finally come together and aid manufacturing, in line with PM’s “Make-in-India” vision,” Mr Vishnaw asserted.

Earlier today, the Union cabinet approved the setting up of three semiconductor-making units at an investment of Rs 1.26 lakh crore as part of an attempt to cut India’s dependence on imports to meet the requirements of chips.