New Delhi: India’s semiconductor ambition is entering a new phase. After focusing on creating the manufacturing base, the country is now looking to build the wider ecosystem needed to design, manufacture, package and scale semiconductors, with greater emphasis on equipment, materials, research, talent and supply chains.
This is the focus of Semicon 2.0, the next phase of India’s semiconductor programme, which comes as the country begins to see commercial production from facilities approved under the first phase.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while speaking at SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi on September 17, said India’s semiconductor ecosystem is expanding rapidly and opening new opportunities for innovation, investment and growth. He also highlighted the growing global demand for new and trusted manufacturing destinations and said India is steadily preparing itself to meet that opportunity.
The numbers indicate how significantly the sector has expanded since the launch of the Semicon India Programme in 2021. The programme was launched with an outlay of ₹76,000 crore. Under the first phase, 12 semiconductor manufacturing units have been approved with cumulative investments of more than ₹1.64 lakh crore. These include a silicon fab, a silicon carbide fab, a Gallium Nitride Micro LED Display fab and nine ATMP/OSAT facilities across six states. Five of these units have now commenced commercial production.
The design ecosystem has also grown alongside manufacturing. More than 1 lakh engineers from 500 organisations, including 400 academic institutions and 100 start-ups, have been provided access to advanced chip-design tools. More than 300 chip designs have been developed through the ecosystem, while India accounts for nearly 20% of the global semiconductor chip-design workforce.
Semicon 2.0 is aimed at taking this foundation further. Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said on September 17 that investment commitments of around ₹1 lakh crore have already been received under the Semicon 2.0 ecosystem. These commitments are expected to create close to 1 lakh new employment opportunities across the semiconductor ecosystem, with investments expected to materialise over the next two to three years, subject to the required board and shareholder approvals.
A major focus will be the expansion of India’s semiconductor design ecosystem. The government is targeting 200 semiconductor design start-ups, with support for scaling fabless companies, access to funding and venture capital, customer discovery and stronger intellectual property protection. Of the 105 semiconductor start-ups supported during the first phase, 20 have already secured venture capital funding.
The next stage will also seek to move Indian capabilities beyond individual chip designs towards systems design, allowing companies and engineers to work on more complex technology requirements.
The ecosystem push extends to the machines and materials required to manufacture semiconductors. Global capital equipment companies are showing interest in establishing design and manufacturing operations in India, while the country’s existing precision manufacturing capabilities could support the development of a wider supplier base serving semiconductors and other high-technology industries.
Manufacturing capacity will continue to expand across different technologies, including display, memory, silicon, compound and logic fabs. Alongside fabs, Semicon 2.0 places greater emphasis on advanced semiconductor packaging, which is increasingly important for improving efficiency and system-level performance.
Research and development will form another part of the expansion. The government plans to promote applied R&D involving industry, government and academia, with industry encouraged to propose projects and participate in their funding alongside the government. Academic institutions will also be involved, with the objective of developing technologies that can translate into tangible outcomes for the semiconductor industry.
The expansion of manufacturing and design capabilities will also require a much larger skilled workforce. Around 400 universities and institutes are already engaged in semiconductor chip-design education under the first phase. Semicon 2.0 will seek to upgrade curricula so that students with foundational chip-design capabilities can progress towards systems design. The government has also set a target of training 1 lakh technicians over five years through partnerships with industry and international institutions, including institutions such as ITRI in Taiwan.
The focus on the wider ecosystem is also reflected in the agreements announced at SEMICON India 2026. Eleven MoU exchanges and five announcements covered semiconductor manufacturing, packaging, materials, equipment, design, talent development and other areas of the value chain.
Tata Electronics and Nexperia B.V. entered into an MoU covering semiconductor wafer manufacturing, assembly and test, technology collaboration and innovation. Tata Electronics also signed agreements with Ascendas First Space for developing a 363-acre vendor park in Dholera, Fujifilm Corporation for localisation of critical semiconductor materials, JSR Corporation for the supply of photoresists and advanced chemicals, and BESI Singapore for advanced semiconductor packaging.
Other agreements covered semiconductor design services, process technology, supply-chain localisation, facility engineering, advanced packaging and workforce development. Six ChipIN Regional Centres were also announced to expand access to chip-design capabilities across the country.
Suchi Semicon and eInfochips exchanged their first batch of commercial devices, while commercial production of CDIL semiconductors was announced along with an association with Japan’s Shindengen Electric Manufacturing Company for package development.
The broader objective is to ensure that semiconductor manufacturing facilities are supported by a domestic ecosystem of equipment makers, materials suppliers, gases and chemicals, precision manufacturers, packaging companies, skilled technicians and resilient supply chains.
Semicon 2.0 has been approved with an outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore and is structured around six broad areas: design, machines and materials, fabs, advanced packaging, research and development, and talent development.
SEMICON India 2026, being held at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi until September 19, reflects the growing global interest in India’s semiconductor plans. The event features more than 600 participating companies, representatives from 52 countries, over 400 executives and more than 150 speakers, with around 50,000 visitors expected.
The direction of India’s semiconductor programme has consequently broadened from creating manufacturing capacity to building the capabilities that can sustain it. With Semicon 2.0, the focus is on connecting design, manufacturing, materials, equipment, packaging, research, talent and supply chains into a larger semiconductor ecosystem capable of supporting the industry over the long term.
BI Bureau
