New Delhi: The Union government has set a target to develop an additional 1 lakh semiconductor engineers as part of the second phase of its semiconductor initiative, Semicon 2.0, Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Monday after releasing detailed guidelines for the programme.
Expanded scope and targets
Semicon 2.0 will broaden the earlier scheme beyond chip design to cover the wider semiconductor value chain — including chip design, fabrication, advanced packaging, equipment, materials, research and development, and talent development. The government has identified six priority technology areas — compute, memory, radio frequency, power, networking and sensors — and flagged around 100 chips for prioritised development.
"Now we have taken a target of one lakh more engineers to be developed," said Ashwini Vaishnaw after the launch of the guidelines.
Vaishnaw noted that India has already trained about 85,000 semiconductor engineers, achieving the target set under the first phase in four years instead of the planned ten. The fresh target responds to an expected global shortfall of roughly 1 million semiconductor workers by 2032.
Universities, chip designs and industry projects
The government will expand its chip-design outreach to 355 universities, bringing institutions from tier-2 and tier-3 cities into the programme. So far, students across participating institutions have designed about 255 chips, signalling efforts to decentralise semiconductor design activity away from traditional engineering hubs.
On the manufacturing and ecosystem front, the government has already approved 12 semiconductor manufacturing projects across six states, along with nine ATMP and OSAT projects (ATMP: assembly, testing, marking and packaging; OSAT: outsourced semiconductor assembly and test). According to the guidelines, three projects have begun commercial production this year, and two more are expected to start production by the end of 2026.
How progress will be measured
Vaishnaw said the success of Semicon 2.0 will be judged by tangible outputs — essentially, "what gets built" — emphasising a results-oriented approach to public support for the sector.
- Talent target: additional 1 lakh semiconductor engineers
- Already achieved: 85,000 trained under phase one; 255 chips designed by students
- Priority areas: compute, memory, RF, power, networking, sensors
- Projects: 12 manufacturing approvals; 9 ATMP/OSAT approvals; 3 in commercial production; 2 to begin by end-2026
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Engineers trained so far | 85,000 |
| New training target | 1,00,000 |
| Chips prioritised | ~100 |
| Universities in design programme | 355 |
| Student-designed chips | 255 |
What this means for India
The expanded emphasis on skills and a broader value-chain approach reflects a strategic goal to capture a larger share of global semiconductor production and design. Training additional engineers and integrating more universities aims to create a deeper domestic talent pool, while approved manufacturing and packaging projects are intended to convert policy support into on-the-ground capacity.
However, delivering on these targets will require continued coordination between central and state governments, industry partners and academia, along with sustained investment in infrastructure, foundry-grade facilities and specialised equipment and materials. The ministry's insistence on measuring success by physical outputs underscores the government’s focus on converting incentives and approvals into working factories, R&D facilities and a trained workforce.
As countries worldwide compete to secure semiconductor supply chains, Semicon 2.0 lays out an ambitious roadmap for India to move further up the chip value chain — from design classrooms in smaller cities to manufacturing floors expected to begin producing in the near term.
