India’s semiconductor story is entering a new phase: from building the case for manufacturing chips at home to assembling the ecosystem needed to design, make, package and eventually build systems around them.But the larger significance of this year’s SEMICON India lies beyond the three-day exhibition. The theme — ‘Silicon to Systems: Building the Ecosystem’ — reflects a semiconductor strategy that is widening from fabs to chip design, advanced packaging, equipment, materials, talent and electronics manufacturing.India bets on the fact that a semiconductor industry cannot be built around a handful of fabrication plants alone. It needs the layers around the chip to develop at the same time.India’s semiconductor push has its roots in a much larger transformation in electronics manufacturing.Electronics production has risen from about ₹1.9 lakh crore in 2014-15 to ₹13.11 lakh crore in 2025-26, while electronics exports have increased from around ₹38,000 crore to ₹4.24 lakh crore, according to government data.Mobile manufacturing has grown even faster.Smartphones, which did not feature among India’s top 100 exported commodities in 2014, became the country’s largest individual exported commodity in FY26. India now makes 99.2% of the mobile phones it uses and has moved from being a net importer of mobile phones to a net exporter. The mobile manufacturing ecosystem alone supports around 12 lakh jobs, while the broader electronics manufacturing sector supports about 25 lakh direct and indirect jobs.That manufacturing base matters because semiconductors sit further upstream in the electronics value chain. The government’s approach has therefore been to move from finished products to components and, ultimately, the chips and equipment that underpin them.The first major policy push came with the Semicon India Programme, approved with an outlay of ₹76,000 crore.The programme was designed to cover the semiconductor value chain rather than focus exclusively on fabrication — spanning chip design, fabs, packaging and testing, equipment, materials and talent.The next phase is substantially larger. The Union Cabinet approved Semicon 2.0 in July 2026 with an outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore. The scheme stands at six broad pillars of chip design, semiconductor equipment and materials, fabrication facilities, advanced packaging, research and development, and talent development.The progress under the first phase provides the clearest indication of how far the programme has moved beyond policy announcements.The 12 approved projects span silicon and compound semiconductor fabrication, display fabrication and advanced packaging. Micron, Kaynes and CG Semi have already started commercial production in India.That is an important shift in the nature of India’s semiconductor story. The country is no longer only talking about attracting fabs; some of the capacity supported by the programme is now producing commercially.A semiconductor fab is one part of the chain.Before a chip reaches a factory, it has to be designed and verified. After fabrication, it needs to be packaged and tested. Around these processes sit specialised equipment, chemicals, gases, materials, software and highly trained engineers.This is where India’s design push becomes important.The Chips to Start-up programme, launched in 2022, is intended to build a domestic pool of semiconductor talent. The programme targets 85,000 industry-ready professionals across undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels.Electronic Design Automation tools, the software used to design, simulate and verify chips, have been made available across hundreds of academic institutions. More than 68,000 students had been trained under the programme, according to government data supplied for the initiative.The government has also approved 24 semiconductor design projects for financial support, while 105 startups and MSMEs have received access to industry-standard EDA tools under the Design Linked Incentive scheme.By April 2026, 211 chips had been taped out by 75 institutions, with seven subsequently fabricated at various nodes, including 12-nanometre designs.....Read more at:https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/electronics/semicon-2026-from-phones-to-fabs-how-india-is-building-its-semiconductor-muscle/articleshow/134302289.cms (ICE MUMBAI)

Fonte notizia: The Economic Times