India's Semiconductor Ambitions
Building Semiconductor Talent
Why skilled engineers and technicians are a bottleneck for India's chip ambitions, and how universities, industry and government are training them.
Chipmaking needs many kinds of skilled workers. India has strong design talent but fewer people trained in manufacturing.
Skills needed
- Process engineers who manage fabrication steps.
- Equipment technicians who maintain complex machines.
- Materials scientists and chemists.
- Packaging and testing engineers.
- Quality control specialists.
The gap
Because India had no commercial fabs, few engineers gained manufacturing experience at home. Many Indian semiconductor professionals work abroad.
Building talent
- Courses in VLSI design and semiconductor technology at IITs, NITs and other colleges.
- Industry partnerships: companies like Micron and Tata train workers, sometimes sending them abroad for training.
- Government programmes to train tens of thousands of chip engineers, including through chip design tools provided to universities.
- Diaspora: attracting Indian engineers working abroad to return.
Why it matters
Talent determines whether plants reach high yields and productivity. Countries like Taiwan built their industries on decades of skill development.
Opportunities
Semiconductor jobs can be well paid and technically rewarding, offering new career paths for engineers and technicians.
An Indian process engineer who worked for years at a fab in Taiwan returns to join the Dholera project, training young Indian engineers in fab operations.
Manufacturing requires different skills, which India is still building.
- Chipmaking needs process engineers, technicians, scientists and quality specialists.
- India has design talent but limited manufacturing experience.
- Courses, industry training, government programmes and diaspora help.
- Talent determines yields and productivity.
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