Qualcomm India Partners With MeitY To Support, Train Indian Semiconductor Startups

Mobile chipset manufacturing company Qualcomm India has collaborated with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to organise the Qualcomm Semiconductor Mentorship Program (QSMP) 2022 for startups working in the Indian semiconductor space. 

With this program, Qualcomm India aims to provide mentorship, technical training, and industry outreach to Indian startups in the semiconductor space. 

C-DAC is the research and development organisation of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

Qualcomm India will shortlist approximately 10 Indian startups for QSMP 2022. Each startup will be paired with a Qualcomm India leader for mentorship on product planning and development. 

The selected startups will be provided mentorship and support in areas such as design, testing, and verification packaging, and on non-technical topics including pitches, IPR, marketing, government incentives/opportunities, and scaling up teams.

C-DAC will act as an outreach partner in the program and give exposure to the selected startups. 

Commenting on the initiative, E. Magesh, director general of C-DAC, said, “We encourage Indian startups to come forward and meet the current and projected domestic demand for semiconductors with the support of government-led programmes such as ‘Make in India’ and the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme. The joint initiative with Qualcomm India will enable us to identify, interact with, and support the scale-up of the most promising Indian semiconductor startups.”

Both C-DAC and Qualcomm India will also create platforms and forums that provide opportunities to small businesses and startups, who have potentially disruptive technologies, to develop or reshape semiconductor supply chains in the future.

Government’s Initiatives To Build Semiconductor Ecosystem In India 

In April this year, MeiTY announced the formation of a panel of experts for India’s semiconductor mission. The committee comprised senior officials, industry experts and academicians. 

The panel of experts would provide specific inputs to develop the Indian semiconductor space and suggest ways to further grow the sector. It would focus on shoring up SMEs in the sector and develop an ecosystem to support such small players.

Speaking on the announcement, Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar had said that the partnership between the government, industry and academia would power the country’s semiconductor mission.

The move was a part of the ‘Semicon India’ programme approved by the Union Cabinet in December 2021. To meet the objective, the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) was established within the Digital India Corporation to create strategies for developing semiconductors in the country.

The Indian government recently also launched the Digital India RISC-V programme as part of its  INR 76K Cr programme to build the semiconductor ecosystem in the country.

Under this programme, the government will work with startups to help them in designing and developing semiconductors. It will further enable startups to mass production in association with global manufacturers companies. 

The DIR-V programme will consolidate and leverage the ongoing efforts in the Indian semiconductor space with a multi-institutional and multi-location team. It will finalise the formal architecture and target performance of chipsets, support original equipment makers and design them in India and abroad. 

“The government has set a timeline to commercially roll out the first indigenous chipsets by 2023-24 and future generation of microprocessors under the programme to meet the surging demand in semiconductors in the automotive, mobility and computing segments,” Chandrasekhar said.

As per the government’s vision document, India will use semiconductors worth $70-$80 Bn to manufacture electronics products worth $300 Bn by 2026. 

The government aims to make the country self-reliant in the semiconductor segment. Shortage of semiconductors had led to an increase in input costs for many products and services. It further aims to build semiconductor fabrication plants and has sought interest from global majors for setting up manufacturing plants in the country, which will involve billions of dollars in investment.