Semicon 2.0 draws Rs 1 lakh crore investment interest

The investment push comes as India seeks to address a shortage of workers trainedin advanced semiconductor manufacturing

NEW DELHI: India has attracted semiconductor investment interest worth around Rs 1 lakh crore under Semicon 2.0, IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said Thursday, as govt prepares to train more than one lakh technicians over five years for upcoming chip factories. At Semicon India 2026, He said the $11-12 billion estimate reflected discussions with companies exploring semiconductor projects. He said details about these investments would be revealed later.The investment push comes as India seeks to address a shortage of workers trained in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, despite accounting for 20% of the world’s chip design workforce, MeitY Secretary S Krishnan said. “What we don’t have is a workforce which is trained in advanced manufacturing.”Vaishnaw said govt would work with industry and institutions such as Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute to establish manufacturing training facilities. Training and skilling agreements signed at the event formed part of this effort.The programme will build on chip design training at around 400 universities and institutes, with plans to expand the curriculum to systems design. Vaishnaw said the Semicon 2.0 ecosystem could generate close to one lakh jobs.Krishnan said industry partnerships would help identify required skills and create training infrastructure as India expands fabs and packaging operations. Advanced packaging and R&D would also receive attention, he said, as further computing gains increasingly depend on better chip packaging. He said govt committed Semicon 1.0’s resources within three years, against an intended six-year window.