Booming semiconductor industry begins talent hunt

The Indian semiconductor industry is ready to boom, believe industry representatives. While the number of semiconductor companies setting up shop in India is on the rise, so is the demand for human resources.

However, doubts are being raised on whether the supply can equal the burgeoning demand at this point in time. Companies are, therefore, initiating campus programmes to create more awareness, train students and thereby recruit the best of the available few.

Says Ganesh Guruswamy, country manager of Freescale Semiconductor India Pvt Ltd, "We spend around one-and-a-half years to train freshers who join us. This is because, though there are innumerable engineering colleges in the country, most of them are not equipped with tool-kits that the students need to be trained on for joining the industry."

Poornima Shenoy, president of the India Semiconductor Association (ISA), says that there are around 130 semiconductor design houses in the country employing around 15,000 people. Of this, around 9,000 alone are very large scale integration (VLSI) designers.

"The industry has the potential to hire more than 16,000 designers in the next few years. However, whether the demand will be met or not is still a question that is best left unanswered," she adds.

"One of the basic reasons for this shortfall is lack of awareness about the career opportunities available in the semiconductor industry today. Students still find software field more glamourous as compared to design engineering in semiconductor companies. This is in spite of very attractive starting salary "� about Rs 4.5 lakh in the semiconductor industry as compared to around Rs 2.5 lakh in software services," Shenoy says.

The ISA is, therefore, working with the engineering colleges in India to sort out this issue. "We have initiated a programme called 'Si-Quest' that aims at talent generation from a broadbased pool in India. Not only do we spread awareness about the career opportunities available in the semiconductor industry but also design tests to enable companies to recruit students," she adds. 'Si-Quest' covers the top 40 engineering colleges in the country.

The ISA has also started a special programme with Visvesvaraya Technological University, Karnataka, wherein it is involved in initiatives like faculty development through increased industry interaction and augmenting the curriculum. "The IT department of Andhra Pradesh has enquired whether such a programme can be replicated in Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University," Shenoy says.

Apart from the association, companies are pitching in on the individual front too. The $12.6-billion, Texas Instruments (TI), for instance, has partnered with 475 universities in the country, wherein it has set up labs for engineering students so that they can hone up technology skills before they join the industry. It also supports campus product incubators that build innovative products on TI platforms.

GDA Technologies, another player in the semiconductor industry, is also starting a similar initiative wherein it plans to work with various universities to train people in chip design activities.

"We are finalising this arrangement with IIT-Kharagpur and are also in talks with IIIT, Hyderabad," says Partha Datta Ray, vice-president (IC engineering and strategic solutions), GDA Technologies. The company plans to ramp up its headcount in India to 600 in the next three years from 200 at an investment of around $5 million.

STMicroelectronics that has already set up a lab at IISc plans to have similar programmes with five institutes this year. "This helps students to get involved in research work at the very outset of joining the industry," Aloknath De, head, telecom unit at STMicroelectronics Pvt Ltd, says. The company has filed three patents through its initiative with IISc.