The government unveiled the Semicon 2.0 roadmap at SEMICON India 2026, with a Rs 1.27 lakh crore outlay across six pillars: chip design, machines and materials, fabrication facilities, advanced packaging, applied research and development, and talent development.

Building a semiconductor industry from a limited base is not a single problem but several interconnected ones, and Semicon 2.0’s structure reflects that. Design capability without fabrication capacity is of limited use, and fabrication without a trained workforce cannot scale.

The inclusion of a dedicated talent-development pillar, targeting 100,000 technicians, is a tacit acknowledgment that semiconductor manufacturing requires specialised, hands-on skills that are not widely available in India’s existing workforce.

Similarly, supporting 200 chip-design start-ups separately from fabrication investment suggests an attempt to build India’s presence across the value chain rather than concentrating solely on manufacturing, where the capital and technology barriers are highest.

Whether Semicon 2.0 succeeds will likely depend less on the headline outlay figure and more on whether investment commitments, currently at about Rs 1 lakh crore, translate into functioning facilities and a trained workforce over the coming years.

Investment commitments of about Rs 1 lakh crore, or $11-12 billion, have been received under the programme so far.

SEMICON India 2026 was the fifth edition of the event, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17.

The three-day conference brought together more than 600 companies from 52 countries.

SEMICON India 2026 was themed ‘Silicon to Systems: Building the Ecosystem’.

The event was organised by the India Semiconductor Mission, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and SEMI.

Semicon 2.0 is described as the next phase of India’s broader semiconductor programme.

India has set a longer-term target of building a $200 billion domestic semiconductor market.

The India Semiconductor Mission was set up to coordinate the country’s chip manufacturing and design push across ministries.

Semiconductor wafer (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0