New Delhi: The government will target at least 200 startups and companies designing chips in India under the next phase of the country's semiconductor mission, Semicon 2.0, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday.
Addressing the inaugural session of SEMICON India 2026, Vaishnaw noted chip design would be the first of six pillars of Semicon 2.0, with the government scaling up ambitions after the previous phase of the mission saw more than 105 startups attempted chip design, of which about 20 secured venture capital funding worth around Rs 800 crore.
"That was just the beginning. This time our ambition is much bigger. We would be targeting at least 200 startups and companies which design chips in India across the spectrum of semiconductor requirements," he said.
The minister said the country had built the foundational base for a domestic semiconductor industry over the past few years through Semicon 1.0, a calibrated programme focused on nurturing talent and building the ecosystem.
"Now, we have to build the building over this foundation," Vaishnaw said, outlining the contours of the next phase of the mission and its six pillars: design, machines and materials, fabrication units, advanced packaging, research and development, and talent.
The second pillar, machines and materials, would cover the entire ecosystem of capital equipment, maintenance facilities, chemicals and gases, Vaishnaw said, noting participation from more than 28 countries at the conference.
Recalling guidance from the prime minister five years ago at the start of the programme, Vaishnaw said, "Don't think short term, think long term. Don't think fab, think ecosystem," adding that this philosophy had continued to shape the mission's design.
The third pillar will focus on setting up more display, memory, silicon, compound and logic fabrication units, which Vaishnaw said would have a multiplier effect on the ecosystem.
The fourth pillar involves scaling up advanced packaging units, building on an existing 3D packaging facility coming up in Odisha, he said.
"We would like to have much more progress in the advanced packaging because that is a very important part of the entire value chain."
The fifth pillar, research and development, will take up industry-driven, applied R&D projects in collaboration with academia, Vaishnaw said, inviting industry participants to suggest projects for this collaborative approach.
On the sixth pillar - talent - Vaishnaw said that against a target of training 85,000 design engineers over 10 years under Semicon 1.0, the government had already trained 70,000 design engineers in just four years.
He said more than 400 universities across the country now have access to the world's latest Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools from companies such as Cadence, Siemens and Synopsys, with the Semiconductor Laboratory in Mohali being used for taping out student-designed chips.
Under Semicon 2.0, the government will additionally target developing 1 lakh skilled technicians, cleanroom personnel and factory floor talent for direct employment in upcoming semiconductor factories in India, creating a global pool of talent.
Vaishnaw described the semicon mission as a long journey, saying the foundation built so far would pave the way toward India's goal of becoming a developed nation, or Viksit Bharat, by 2047.
SEMICON India 2026, themed 'Silicon to Systems: Building the Ecosystem', was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday.
The Government of India approved Semicon 1.0 in December 2021, with an outlay of Rs 76,000 crore. Twelve semiconductor manufacturing units were approved, carrying a cumulative investment of over Rs 1.64 lakh crore.
India approved Semicon 2.0 in July 2026 with a total outlay of Rs 1,27,500 crore.
This report was published from a wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.
