India eyes chip autonomy, taps global Indian talent

India is working towards becoming independent in designing and producing sophisticated microchips under its semiconductor mission, while also attracting Indian professionals with chip-design experience at multinational companies (MNCs), Niti Aayog member Vijay Kumar Saraswat said.

- Gireesh Chandra Prasad

Saraswat, who is also the chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University and a former secretary of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said that it is a well-established fact that Indian designers contribute to virtually every chip produced globally. However, their work is primarily for MNCs, and they are often limited to designing subsystems or specific components rather than complete system designs.

“As a result, while India has a large number of designers in this sector, there are very few who can do ab initio design of a complete system. There is an effort being made today that we will build this capability using those designers who have worked for MNCs so that India also becomes a fully independent chip designer. That effort is being made under the semiconductor mission,” Saraswat said in an interview with Mint.