New Delhi [India], August 13 : Highlighting the role of India's young talent in the technology sector, Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw noted that 20 indigenous student-designed semiconductor chips have been successfully fabricated at the Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL) in Mohali.
In a social media post, the minister stated, "Bharat's Yuva Shakti, 20 indigenous student-designed chips taped out from SCL Mohali."
According to the Ministry of Electronics & IT, these chips were designed by students from 17 Indian engineering institutions, including several IITs, and successfully fabricated at its facility.
These designs are part of the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme, which aims to strengthen semiconductor design and manufacturing capabilities in India.
The ministry further added that the DLI Scheme, approved with an outlay of Rs 1,000 crore, supports domestic companies, startups, and MSMEs in designing semiconductor products.
Designing and commercializing semiconductor products involves high entry barriers, long development timelines, and intense global competition.
To address these challenges, the DLI Scheme offers design infrastructure support, such as Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools and Intellectual Property (IP) cores, for early prototyping.
It also provides financial incentives of up to 50 per cent of eligible costs, capped at Rs 15 crore per application, for design prototyping, scaling up, and volume production.
Additionally, there are incentives of 6 to 4 per cent of net sales turnover over five years, capped at Rs 30 crore per application, for deployment and commercialization of chip solutions.
Since its launch in December 2021, 278 academic institutions under the C2S programme and 72 startups under the DLI scheme have been approved for access to advanced EDA tools.
The ministry stated "The DLI Scheme is implemented in close consultation with stakeholders and beneficiary companies. Any modifications needed will be done based on evolving requirements and feedback".
The ministry also noted that financial support has been sanctioned to 23 firms and startups for designing chips for applications such as surveillance cameras, energy meters, microprocessor IPs, and networking.
Of these, ten companies have secured venture capital funding to scale up their prototypes for commercialization, while six companies have completed prototype tape-outs at various semiconductor foundries.
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