Soon to announce policies to position India as semiconductor nation: MoS IT

India is cementing its place in future of global supply and value chains, and soon-to-be announced semiconductor fab and first packaging unit in the offing along with potentially 100 design startups by 2024 mark its rise as a semiconductor nation, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday.

From near zero levels just a year-and-half ago, India is now well on its way to having 100 semiconductor design startups by 2024. Currently as many as 27-30 design and semiconductor start-ups are "doing very good work", he said.

Citing global companies like Apple, Cisco and Samsung that have deepened their commitment here, Chandrasekhar, who is Minister of State for Electronics and IT, said India's role in future of technology and global supply and value chain as well as innovation ecosystem "is firmly established".

"We are shortly going to announce a fab, and shortly going to announce the first packaging investment, we have the ability today to showcase almost 30 design startups and we are going to launch India semiconductor research centre. So India's place in future of semiconductor innovation, electronics innovation and manufacturing is certainly now on the move," he said speaking at the third SemiconIndia futureDESIGN roadshow at IIT Delhi.

India is emerging as a central and strong part of global value chains, the Minister said and highlighted that enabling policies, the Rs 76,000-crore incentive scheme for chip-making, large talent pool and skilling programme is playing to the country's strength and mark India's rise as a semiconductor nation.

"India tecade is a decade full of technology opportunities...those are tech opportunities available for young Indians all over the country," he said.

Meanwhile, Sequoia Capital India announced its second semiconductor investment this year. InCore Semiconductors, which is building RISC-V processor cores in India, has raised USD 3 million in a seed funding round from Sequoia Capital India.

The investment was announced at the SemiCon India FutureDesign Roadshow'.

This is Sequoia Capital India's second semiconductor investment this year. Earlier this year, the firm also invested in Mindgrove, an IIT Madras incubated semiconductor startup designing innovative System on Chips (SoCs) in India, for the world.

"Additional investors in this round were Speciale Invest and Whiteboard Capital," Sequoia said in a statement.

A series of roadshows are being organised by IT Ministry across the country to stimulate the next-gen Semiconductor Designers, promote the culture of co-development and joint ownership of IPs with active industry participation. The first roadshow in the series was organised at Karnavati University, Gandhinagar in October 2022, and followed by one at IISc Bangalore in February 2023.

In December 2021, the Centre initiated the India Semiconductor Mission with an incentive outlay of Rs 76,000 crore to attract investments in the sector.