Bengaluru/New Delhi: India took another step up the semiconductor value chain on Friday as Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw launched Qualcomm’s 2 nanometre (nm) semiconductor chip in Bengaluru, underscoring the government’s intent to position the country as a global hub for advanced chip design and engineering.
Calling the moment a reflection of India’s growing role in global engineering operations, the minister said the world is increasingly looking at India for deep-tech innovation, powered by its talent base. He linked the progress to the government’s semiconductor mission, noting that India has moved from laying the manufacturing foundation to building a more complete ecosystem around chips.
The government’s initial push focused on establishing fabrication and back-end units. According to Vaishnaw, 10 semiconductor units are under construction, with four already in pilot production, working toward customer validation and eventual commercial output. The first phase began with 28 nm technology, aimed at covering a large share of needs across automotive, telecom, power management and strategic sectors.
Parallelly, India has been scaling up its design talent pipeline. Since 2022, 315 universities have been equipped with industry-grade Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools from global vendors, enabling students—even in remote institutions—to design chips, tape them out and validate them through real processes, the minister said.
Looking ahead, the government plans to roll out India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0 with a sharper focus on three pillars: nurturing design companies and startups that can take products to market, building the full domestic ecosystem—from equipment and materials to testing and validation—and deepening the talent base through closer partnerships with universities.
Vaishnaw framed the push in the context of what he called the unfolding “5th Industrial Revolution”, arguing that tighter collaboration between government, industry and academia is essential to ensure deep-tech innovation originates from India and delivers higher value to global markets. He also stressed the need for continuous upskilling and curriculum alignment to keep the workforce industry-ready.
For India, the launch of a 2 nm chip design by a global major like Qualcomm is less about a single product and more about signalling intent: to move beyond assembly and testing into the frontiers of chip design, while building a resilient, end-to-end semiconductor ecosystem at home