Semicon India 2.0 targets 200 chip design startups, 1 lakh technicians, Ashwini Vaishnaw says

Semicon India 2.0 will target at least 200 startups and companies designing chips in India, while also creating a new pool of 1 lakh semiconductor technicians and other industry-ready talent, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday.

“In SEMICON 2.0, we would be targeting at least 200 startups and companies which design chips in India across the spectrum of semiconductor requirements,” Vaishnaw said at Semicon India 2026.

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The target builds on the first phase of the government’s semiconductor programme, under which 105 startups participated and around 20 received venture capital funding totalling about Rs 800 crore, he said.

Semicon 2.0, approved by the Union Cabinet in July with an outlay of Rs 1.275 lakh crore, is structured around six pillars covering chip design, semiconductor equipment and materials, fabs, advanced packaging, research and development, and talent development.

The second pillar will focus on machines and materials. Vaishnaw said the USD 5 billion investment announced at the event would help generate employment in India.

The third pillar will focus on setting up more fabs, covering silicon semiconductor wafer fabs, compound semiconductor and photonics facilities, sensors and display fabs. The fourth will further strengthen India's ATMP and OSAT ecosystem, including advanced packaging capabilities.

“We already have a 3D packaging unit coming up in Odisha,” Vaishnaw said.

The fifth pillar will focus on research and development, with projects aimed at addressing advanced industry requirements through closer collaboration between companies and academia.

“This will be fully driven by the industry and academia, absolutely working in harmony and in synchronisation. It won't be an isolated kind of R&D. It will be a very applied kind of R&D that we would be looking at,” he said.

1 lakh new semiconductor talent

The sixth pillar will focus on talent development, with the government now shifting greater attention towards the technicians and factory-floor workforce needed as semiconductor manufacturing expands in India.

Vaishnaw said Semicon India 1.0 had set a target of training 85,000 design engineers over 10 years, but the target had already been achieved in four years.

“In Semicon 2.0, we will take a big task of developing technician talent, the clean room talent, the factory floor talent, and we will be targeting 1 lakh talent to be developed,” he said.

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The new talent pool will be employed directly in semiconductor factories being established in India and will also contribute to a global pool of skilled workers, Vaishnaw said.

The government had said in August that India had achieved the target of developing 85,000 semiconductor engineers in four years against the original 10-year timeline. It has now set a target of developing another 1 lakh engineers.

From design to manufacturing

Semicon India 2.0 is intended to build on the semiconductor ecosystem established under the first phase of the programme and expand India's capabilities across the value chain.

Under Semicon India 1.0, the government approved 12 semiconductor projects. Three of those units have since commenced commercial production, according to the government.

The broader Semicon 2.0 framework aims to strengthen capabilities spanning chip design, fabrication, packaging, equipment, materials, research and development and talent.

SEMICON India 2026, being held from September 17 to 19 at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi, is themed “Silicon to Systems: Building the Ecosystem”. The three-day event is jointly organised by the India Semiconductor Mission, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and SEMI, the global semiconductor industry association.

The event brings together more than 600 exhibitors, including 300 international companies, along with more than 150 speakers and delegations from over 40 countries. The exhibition spans more than 15,000 square metres and includes country and state pavilions, as well as dedicated programmes for startups, students and workforce development.

The event is also showcasing India's progress under the first phase of the semiconductor programme as the government seeks to move from building individual manufacturing facilities towards creating a broader, integrated semiconductor ecosystem.