India brings hands-on chip design to 400 colleges

Students at around 400 engineering colleges across India, including institutions in smaller cities, now have access to professional chip-design tools and opportunities to turn their designs into physical chips, according to electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The Chips to Startup programme gives students hands-on experience in design, testing and tape-out, the step when a completed chip design is sent for manufacturing. This takes learning beyond classroom exercises into the practical process of creating a working electronic component.

Speaking at SEMICON India 2026, Vaishnaw said India had trained around 70,000 design engineers in four years, against an initial goal of 85,000 over a decade. Support has also extended to young businesses: more than 105 chip-design startups gained access to specialised design software through an initiative addressing its high cost.

The next phase of India's semiconductor mission is planned to broaden training from individual chips to the electronic systems they work within. For students, the immediate opportunity is tangible: gaining experience of taking a design towards production before entering the workforce. The programme's reach into smaller cities makes that opportunity available beyond the country's largest urban centres.