India can bridge global semicon talent shortage

As electronics become ubiquitous in our lives, as technologies like AI and IoT make new kinds of chips critical, and as more and more countries try to build their own semiconductor ecosystems to reduce their dependence on Taiwan, massive talent shortages are emerging. Ruchir Dixit, country manager at Siemens EDA, said at our webinar last week that the US expects a shortage of 250,000 semiconductor engineers over the next five years, China 300,000, and Taiwan 50,000. “If India can supply the talent, just imagine the amount of business we will be able to deliver to the world. It’s a huge opportunity for us,” he said.

India already has great chip design skills, but even here, Dixit said it takes 6-12 months of training by companies to bring them to a level where they are job-ready, because college curriculum tends to focus on theory. He said the industry gets 80% of its talent from tier-2 & 3 institutions, and it’s important to give them autonomy to design their curriculum. He said colleges and professors should be measured not just on publications, but also on how many students they place in internships, and how many interns get hired.

The world, and India in particular, today also needs lots of manufacturing talent.

Anand Bariya

, senior VP of engineering at semiconductor company

OpenFive

, said that as chip fabrication facilities come up in India, we would need to create programmes that are outside of the standard engineering colleges. “We will need informal programmes. We have a very good ecosystem of polytechnics and ITIs. We have to tune it to the electronics & semiconductor industry,” he said.

Sunita Verma

, senior director in the Central electronics & IT ministry, said institutions like National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT) are providing training in various segments of the industry. But, she said, the sudden surge in demand requires more non-formal courses.

Verma

said more college autonomy is needed, and professors should encourage internships. In response to suggestions from Bariya, Verma acknowledged the need to make students more aware of government training programmes, and make compute resources and chip design tools available to students remotely.

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