India’s semiconductor push now includes more than 325 student-prepared chip designs and engineers working at 2–3 nm, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, while production targets remain on a separate timetable.
At the NDTV World Summit in New Delhi on Oct. 22, Modi described the country’s ambitions in chip engineering and called its role a move beyond a “Back Office” toward a “Brain Office.” He also cited India as home to 20% of the global chip-design workforce. A March 13 response from the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) put the share at nearly 20%, based on industry estimates.
A written answer to the Lok Sabha on Aug. 12 reported 254 designs taped out through the government’s Chips to Start-ups Programme. Of those, 175 were at the 180 nm node at the Semi-Conductor Laboratory in Mohali, and 79 were at overseas foundries. The programme had trained more than 68,000 students toward a goal of 85,000 industry-ready professionals and provided electronic design automation tools to 332 academic institutions.
A separate MeitY response on March 13 said 49 institutions had taped out 146 designs, while the Mohali laboratory had fabricated and packaged 94 student-designed chips. These figures predate the summit and record different development milestones. Modi’s account did not say how many of the more than 325 student designs had reached tape-out or fabrication.
India’s government announced a manufacturing roadmap with industry partners, including IBM, targeting 7 nm by 2030 and 3 nm by 2032. The dates concern manufacturing, a separate stage from design work. In May 2025, MeitY said Renesas Electronics India had opened 3 nm design facilities in Noida and Bengaluru.
Modi did not name a project or foundry for the 2–3 nm designs or give them a production schedule. The published roadmap sets a 3 nm manufacturing goal for 2032 but gives no date for 2 nm production.
