New Delhi, July 20 (IANS) The way we are building capital equipment and materials needed to build semiconductors, India will become one of the top-5 semiconductor nations in the coming years, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

Highlighting the country’s rapid progress in the semiconductor sector, the minister emphasised that India is now creating the full ecosystem — from chip design to manufacturing — that will help it emerge as a global hub for semiconductors.

Speaking at the 14th convocation of IIT-Hyderabad, Vaishnaw highlighted the significant role students from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are playing in this journey.

He revealed that students have already designed 20 chipsets, out of which eight have been “taped out” and sent for fabrication.

These chipsets are being manufactured at global foundries and at the Semi-conductor Laboratory (SCL) in Mohali, which is government-owned and operational since 1976.

The minister also said that India is expected to produce its first commercial-scale, Made-in-India semiconductor chip this year.

This milestone is being supported by the government’s India Semiconductor Mission, which has provided advanced electronic design automation (EDA) tools to 270 colleges and 70 startups.

Over 700 students at IIT-Hyderabad alone have used these tools for a combined 3,00,000 hours in the last six months.

To further boost innovation, the government has also launched AIKosh, an open-source AI platform that now hosts 880 datasets and over 200 AI models.

These resources are freely available to students, researchers, and startups across the country.

Vaishnaw underlined that these efforts are not just limited to research but are also translating into economic gains.

“India’s electronics exports have crossed $40 billion, a figure that reflects an eight-fold increase over the last 11 years,” the minister added.

He said the country’s electronics production has grown six times during this period, achieving a double-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) that many private companies would envy.

As of July 2025, six semiconductor fabrication plants (fabs) have either been approved or are under development in India.

While the SCL in Mohali continues to function using legacy technology, the upcoming fabs are expected to bring in next-generation semiconductor capabilities.

–IANS

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