Design Strength Underutilized – India holds nearly 20% of global chip design talent, but most of it services foreign firms instead of building indigenous products.
Need for Systems & Ecosystem – To boost value addition and GDP, India must shift from components to system-level development and create a full semiconductor ecosystem under ISM 2.0.
Scale for Self-Reliance – Building hundreds of chip and product companies is critical to ensure fab viability, reduce dependence on foreign chips, and establish India as a true product nation.
Amid discussions on strengthening India’s semiconductor workforce, Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman of EPIC Foundation & National Quantum Mission and Co-Founder of HCL Infosystems, noted that while India has ample talent in chip design, much of it is employed by foreign companies hindering the country’s ability to build its own products.
“Our greatest strength is our people & our brains. India holds nearly 20% of the world’s design capability, but most of this capacity today services global companies. We rarely leverage this strength to design and build our own products. That’s where the opportunity lies, if we can channel this design talent into creating Indian products, we will substantially increase the value addition happening within the country,” said Chowdhry.
He pointed out that India’s per capita GDP today stands at around $5,000, compared to $10,000–20,000 in countries like Korea and China, largely because their domestic value addition is significantly higher.
“To catch up, India must focus on building not just components, but complete systems,” he emphasized.
The designing vertical in the semiconductor industry refers to all activities involved in conceptualizing, architecting, and designing semiconductor chips before they are fabricated.
India is already a large market and does not need to depend on others, but Chowdhry emphasized that the next crucial step is to build systems and products domestically.
“Without indigenous system-level development, there will be little demand for fabs, packaging, and other parts of the semiconductor value chain,” he added.
He expressed hope that ISM 2.0 will focus on developing the entire semiconductor ecosystem covering design, systems, fabs, packaging, and ultimately world-class products so that India can emerge as a true product nation. Chowdhry emphasised that having only 20–30 companies would keep the ecosystem shallow, but building hundreds of chip and product firms would create a strong, steady pipeline of orders, making fabs in India truly viable.
He underscored that many products used in India today rely on foreign-made chips, resulting in sensitive data often flowing back to countries like China which highlights the urgent need for Indian-designed chips to power Indian products.
According to him, for any country to become a product oriented nation needs design talent, the entrepreneurial energy, and now the right policy environment.
“What we need is scale, hundreds of product companies, backed by a complete semiconductor ecosystem. If we achieve this, India will not only design but also manufacture world-class products,” Chowdhry concluded.
