Centre to train 2,100 tribal students in semiconductor technology

According to a report by IANS, today, Thursday, August 8, the centre said it will provide basic and advanced training to 2,100 tribal students in semiconductor technology, over the period of next three years. This comes in light of the country aiming to create a skilled workforce for chip design and manufacturing.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, will provide basic training to 1,500 tribal students and advanced training to 600 tribal students in chip technology.

Furthermore, all tribal students who possess a degree in one of the engineering subjects, are eligible to apply for the programme, the Parliament was informed.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has created six large nano centres (including IISc) for delivering training in semiconductor technology.

The degree programmes at these nano centres have representation from the tribal community, as per the reservation policies. Other than degree programmes, the nano centres also run short-term training programmes under the Indian Nanoelectronics User's Programme (INUP) programme.

However, the programme with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the first training programme dedicated exclusively to tribal communities. The project aims to deliver 2,100 NSQF-certified level 6.0 & 6.5 training in semiconductor technology to tribal students over three years.

In addition, the INUP is a unique initiative for accelerating research and development in nanoelectronics that was launched in August 2008 at the Centers of Excellence in Nanoelectronics (CEN) at IISc Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.

The programme aims to facilitate the experimentation of research ideas of Indian researchers in the general area of nanoelectronics.

Besides that, according to Union Minister for Railways, Electronics and Information Technology (IT) and Information and Broadcasting (I&B), Ashwini Vaishnaw, the development of Indigenous advanced semiconductor packaging technologies is extremely critical for key applications such as automotive (especially electric vehicles), communications, network infrastructure, and other.