- The centre would establish the India Semiconductor Research Institute to serve as a centre of excellence (CoE).
- The government has also designed a semiconductor education curriculum for higher education institutions in consultation with the industry.
The central government will invest $2 billion into the Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL) in Mohali, to encourage research and prototyping, announced the Union Minister of State (Mos) for Electronics & Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
At the third SemiconIndia futureDESIGN Roadshow, in IIT Delhi on Friday, Chandrashekhar said that the centre would establish the India Semiconductor Research Institute which will serve as a centre of excellence (CoE). The CoE would work with institutes like IIT Delhi, IIT Chennai and others in a hub-and-spoke model.
Chandrasekhar said that there were around 27 startups working in the semiconductor sector. He added that the Centre intended to create 100 semiconductor design startups.
“We are working on a mission mode under PM Modi’s leadership to achieve in the next 10 years that China took 30 years to achieve in electronics and semiconductors,” the Minister said.
The minister said that the government has designed a semiconductor education curriculum for higher education institutions in consultation with the industry, which will enable India to become a worldwide talent pool in semiconductor design.
Earlier this year in February, a parliamentary standing committee was informed by the government that the Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL) was being looked at for a joint venture with a commercial partner to modernise the existing facility. The ministry had floated a tender inviting bids and a pre-bid conference with the prospective bidders on February 22 at the SCL.
SCL was set up in 1984, with the objective of developing the electronics industry in India and moving the country towards self-reliance in chip manufacturing. The government transferred the chip plant to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) under the Department of Space in 2006. ISRO upgraded the existing CMOS chip manufacturing technology to 180 nanometres sourced from an Israeli company. Since then SCL has designed and manufactured a variety of microchips and used these successfully in some of the ISRO’s flight missions.
