Arya News - Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said India has already trained 70,000 semiconductor design engineers in four years, against an original target of 85,000 over a decade.
NEW DELHI – India is setting a substantially bigger target for the next phase of its semiconductor programme, with Semicon 2.0 aiming to support at least 200 chip-design startups and companies and develop a pool of one lakh technicians.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi put a global marker on that ambition at SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi on Thursday. “India’s chips will go out to the world,” he said while inaugurating the fifth edition of the semiconductor convention.
Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw laid out the contours of Semicon 2.0 at the event. The programme will focus on six areas spanning chip design, machines and materials, fabrication, advanced packaging, research and development, and talent.
Semicon 2.0 sets target of 200 chip-design startups and companies
Chip design will form the first pillar of the new programme.
“In SEMICON 2.0, we would be targeting at least 200 startups and companies which design chips in India across the spectrum of semiconductor requirements,” Vaishnaw said.
The government is building on the first phase, in which 105 startups participated. Around 20 of them secured venture capital funding of about Rs 800 crore, according to the minister.
Machines and materials will form another part of the new programme. Vaishnaw said a USD 5 billion investment announced during the event would help generate employment.
The third pillar will cover displays, memory, silicon, compound and logic, while advanced packaging will form the fourth.
“We already have a 3D packaging unit coming up in Odisha,” Vaishnaw said.
India targets one lakh technicians under Semicon 2.0
Talent development is also being expanded.
Vaishnaw said India had trained 70,000 design engineers in four years. The original target under the first phase was to train 85,000 over 10 years.
More than 400 universities now have access to electronic design automation tools, he said.
The next phase will turn its attention to technicians required on manufacturing floors.
“In Semicon 2.0, we will take a big task of developing technician talent, the clean room talent, the factory floor talent, and we will be targeting 1 lakh talent to be developed,” Vaishnaw said.
He said this workforce would be employed in factories coming up in India and could also form part of a global talent pool.
Applied R&D forms fifth pillar of semiconductor plan
Research and development will form the fifth pillar.
Vaishnaw said projects would be built around cutting-edge industry requirements through collaboration between companies and academia.
“This will be fully driven by the industry and academia, absolutely working in harmony and in synchronisation. It won’t be an isolated kind of R&D. It will be a very applied kind of R&D that we would be looking at,” he said.
The semiconductor programme has so far seen 12 projects approved by the Union government. Three units approved under Semicon 1.0 have begun commercial production.
PM Modi links chip push to India’s wider economic momentum
PM Modi used the SEMICON India platform to place the semiconductor programme alongside recent developments in finance, freight infrastructure and the broader economy.
“India’s economy is growing… The world’s trust in India is also growing,” the Prime Minister said.
He pointed to the Global FinTech Fest in Mumbai, where discussions covered inclusive finance through agentic AI, tokenisation and quantum technology.
PM Modi also said around 3,000 km of dedicated freight corridors had become fully operational.
“This will accelerate movement across the country, improve logistics and give new strength to manufacturing,” he said.
The Prime Minister cited India’s 7.8 per cent growth in the latest quarter despite a difficult global environment. He also referred to a recent sovereign rating upgrade and the consensus adoption of the New Delhi Declaration at the BRICS Summit as signs of international confidence in India.
SEMICON India 2026 runs from September 17 to 19 at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi. The three-day convention is being jointly organised by the India Semiconductor Mission and global industry body SEMI, with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, under the theme ‘Silicon to Systems: Building the Ecosystem’.