Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday interacted with top executives and domain experts at the CEO roundtable of the Semicon India 2025 conference, a flagship event aimed at positioning India as a trusted partner in the global semiconductor supply chain.
The three-day conference, launched on Tuesday, seeks to drive India’s ambition of becoming a hub for semiconductor design, manufacturing and advanced technology development. On the second day, PM Modi toured the exhibition, reviewing a range of semiconductor products and projects showcased at the event.
Union minister of electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw unveiled 13 major announcements at Semicon India 2025, including the launch of India’s first ‘Made in India’ chips and systems microphone designed for wireless earbuds, wearables and digital identity solutions.
“From fabs (fabrication facilities) and design to skilling, R&D and funding — these initiatives mark another leap in Bharat’s semiconductor journey. Global trust. Domestic innovation. Strong talent base. The future of chips is being shaped in India,” Vaishnaw said.
The announcements also included strategic tie-ups: a memorandum of understanding between Tata Electronics and Merck to establish Tata’s fab in Gujarat; an MoU between Tata Electronics and C-DAC to strengthen India’s design and intellectual property ecosystem; and collaborations involving Kaynes Semicon, SPARSH-IQ Solutions, 3rdiTech, Focally and SenseSemi Technologies to build the country’s first fully indigenous automotive and industrial AI vision solutions.
{{/usCountry}}The announcements also included strategic tie-ups: a memorandum of understanding between Tata Electronics and Merck to establish Tata’s fab in Gujarat; an MoU between Tata Electronics and C-DAC to strengthen India’s design and intellectual property ecosystem; and collaborations involving Kaynes Semicon, SPARSH-IQ Solutions, 3rdiTech, Focally and SenseSemi Technologies to build the country’s first fully indigenous automotive and industrial AI vision solutions.
{{/usCountry}}Other key initiatives featured the establishment of India’s first National Innovation Hub for semiconductors and quantum technology by L&T Semicon and IISc Bangalore, the launch of an Internet of Things (IoT) Evolution Board powered by the indigenous VEGA processor, and the creation of the India Deep-Tech Investment Alliance (IDTA) with a $1 billion commitment to mobilise private capital and expertise for deep tech companies and start-ups.
Day two discussions focused on both strategic and practical aspects of semiconductor growth in India. Experts deliberated on the sector’s potential, the roadmap for policy implementation and ways to induct a skilled workforce to accelerate its development.
Academia made a strong pitch for early-stage skill development. Rajat Moona, director of IIT Gandhinagar, suggested introducing hardware training modules from schools to colleges, ensuring that students are equipped with semiconductor-oriented knowledge and skills from a young age.
State-level policy implementation also formed a key part of the dialogue. Senior bureaucrats shared their experiences of enabling investments and rolling out semiconductor policies in their respective states. The consensus was that while collaboration between states is crucial, healthy competition would eventually drive results. “Eventually, the states are going to compete. They will work together to a certain point and then they will compete,” remarked Ajay Sawhney, former secretary of the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
Industry veterans emphasised the importance of building India as a product nation. Ajai Chowdhry, co-founder of HCL Infosystems, proposed mandating that at least half of the semiconductor chips used in every product be sourced domestically. This, he argued, would push companies to integrate Indian semiconductor solutions into their manufacturing ecosystem.
“The next wars will be fought with semiconductors. We can see what happened with this (Operation Sindoor) war. If we did not have control over our own products and chips, we would have been in a dire state. Because we were competing with a phenomenal range of products from China,” Chowdhry said.