India's semiconductor journey from assembler to innovator hinges on design capability, talent development, and building trusted global partnerships.
14 Dec 2025 | 6011 Views | By Rahul Garg, Moglix
Semiconductors have moved from being an industry to becoming an instrument of strategy. The pandemic, supply chain shocks, and geopolitical flashpoints have shown how access to chips determines a nation’s economic rhythm. In a multipolar world, self-reliance is not isolation; it is the ability to build trusted, resilient ecosystems that ...
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Semiconductors have moved from being an industry to becoming an instrument of strategy. The pandemic, supply chain shocks, and geopolitical flashpoints have shown how access to chips determines a nation’s economic rhythm. In a multipolar world, self-reliance is not isolation; it is the ability to build trusted, resilient ecosystems that can withstand uncertainty. For India, the semiconductor and electronics story is no longer distant, it has begun.
The global semiconductor market is projected to reach US $1 trillion by 2030, while India’s domestic electronics market could cross US $100 billion. This growth is driven by demand from mobile devices, automotive systems, renewable energy, healthcare, defence, and smart infrastructure. Whoever controls semiconductors controls innovation; whoever designs them defines the next decade of technology.
India’s policy architecture is beginning to reflect that reality. The India Semiconductor Mission, launched in 2021 with an outlay of around ₹76,000 crore, has approved ten projects across six states, attracting ₹1.6 lakh crore in investments. Simultaneously, the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme has catalysed an electronics surge: exports rose 47 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of FY 2026, and mobile phone exports have grown from almost zero in 2016 to nearly ₹90,000 crore in FY 2023. Scale is finally matching ambition.
But building an industry is not the same as building sovereignty. True sovereignty begins with design, research, and intellectual property, areas where India has made progress but still has distance to cover. Much of the design ecosystem depends on foreign electronic design automation tools and imported IP cores. India needs a homegrown framework that supports local standards, security, and innovation. The real question is not only whether we can make chips but whether we can design the thinking that makes chips possible.
Talent lies at the centre of that challenge. For decades, Indian engineers have fuelled global innovation in software. The next leap demands a shift from code to circuits, from platforms to physics. Each chip requires not just coding intelligence but deep understanding of material science, lithography, and system integration. Universities and industry must collaborate to create a pipeline of semiconductor intellect, programs that combine design thinking with fabrication fundamentals. India produces over 600,000 electronics engineers every year; aligning even a fraction toward chip design and manufacturing can transform national capability.
Across India, new regional clusters are taking shape. Gujarat is advancing in fabrication and packaging; Bengaluru dominates design; Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh are strengthening assembly and testing; Mohali is emerging as a hub for prototyping. Each reflects a pattern; policy incentives creating gravity for private capital, and enterprise creating learning cycles for local talent. Over time, this distributed network could become India’s greatest strength: a federation of specialised capabilities linked through a shared national mission.
Challenges remain significant. More than 90 percent of India’s advanced wafers, chemicals, and substrates are still imported, increasing costs and risks. Fabs require clean rooms, reliable power, and ultrapure water, conditions not yet universal. Logistics costs, though improving, remain higher than competing economies. If every percentage point in logistics cost translates into export competitiveness, this is the quiet battle India must win.
Equally important is quality and sustainability. The next wave of global manufacturing will reward reliability, not just cost. India’s reputation will depend on precision, compliance, and responsible production, turning factories into long-term partnerships rather than transactional suppliers. The environmental footprint of fabrication offers another opportunity: to build green fabs and embed ESG principles into industrial design from the outset.
The coming three to four years will be decisive. Fabrication plants are moving from MoUs to site development, silicon-carbide packaging is on the horizon, and India’s OSAT ecosystem is maturing. These will test how well national policy, state initiatives, and private execution can synchronise. They will determine whether India can evolve from an assembler to a full-stack semiconductor nation, owning research, design, production, and value creation.
Yet the deeper questions remain: How do we ensure Indian-designed chips remain Indian-owned in value and rights? How do we foster shared research frameworks that protect intellectual property while encouraging collaboration? And how do we pair patient capital with patient innovation in a sector where outcomes are measured in decades, not quarters?
India’s neutrality, software heritage, and young technical workforce position it uniquely to be a trusted node in a diversified global supply chain. If we can connect design with manufacturing, research with policy, and education with execution, we can define a model of technological sovereignty that is inclusive, collaborative, and resilient.
Semiconductors are not just about chips; they are about choices—the choice to invest long term, to design what we use, and to value knowledge as much as production. If India sustains that discipline, the next decade will not just be about making in India, it will be about making the future with India.
Rahul Garg is the Founder and CEO at Moglix. Views expressed are the author's personal.