Page 54 - EE Times Europe Magazine | February 2020

52 EE|Times EUROPE

SPECIAL REPORT: INDIA
India Needs Better-Trained Talent

to Move Up Chip Value Chain

By Faisal Kawoosa

ndia’s contribution to the global chip industry
is undisputed. There is no major name in the
chip industry that isn’t present in the country.
IThrough its captive design centers as well as
third-party offshore design-services suppliers,
India contributes more than US$12 billion to the
global semiconductor industry annually.
Because of strict confi dentiality guidelines,
we rarely come to know which chips have been
signifi cantly designed in India. But when the
various aspects of LSI design, verifi cation, and
embedded-software development are all taken
into account, it’s fair to say that some of the most
popular products of recent times can trace aspects
of their design back to Indian engineers. IMAGE S UTTERSTOCK
“There is probably no chip in the world [that]
hasn’t been ‘touched’ by India in some way,” said
P.V.G. Menon, president and CEO of VANN Consult-
ing and former president of the India Electronics
and Semiconductor Association. corporate vice president and managing director at Cadence Design
What makes India so signifi cant in the global chip supply chain ow Systems India. “What we now require is empowerment of talent to take
have Bengaluru and adjoining cities become such prominent points on higher-order skills in the chip industry for product development and IP
the chip industry map, perhaps next to Silicon alley creation.”
The not-so-secret sauce is the wealth of engineering talent available Clearly, both the government (with its policy intervention) and the
in India at very attractive price points relative to global labor costs. The industry (with its aspiration) understand the need for India to move up
starting salary of an R&D engineer in India ranges between US$1,500 the hierarchy of skills in the chip industry if the country hopes to foster
and US$2,500 a month. That’s 40% to 50% of what one could expect the emergence of high-tech startups in the domain. Where the country
in countries like the United States. It’s thus no surprise that the U.S. continues to fall short is in implementing the plan.
industry sources much of its chip-engineering talent in India, just as it For instance, as part of the Ph.D. initiative, the government in 2014
has done for software. Rather than pay for high-cost homegrown talent, sanctioned a US$56 million fund for a period of nine years that would
it makes economic sense for U.S. companies to recruit from India — be spent on stipends and other grants for full-time as well as part-time
and some Indian engineers aspire to move to countries like the U.S. at Ph.D. scholars in electronic-systems design and engineering services.
virtually any cost. But the actual awarding of funds to benefi ciaries, particularly in elec-
While India has a wealth of engineering talent, however, it could tronic-systems design, is believed to have been negligible (again, there
do a better job preparing its new engineers for evolving industry is no publicly available data on the program).
requirements. “Talent is not a problem at all,” said Parag Naik, CEO at One reason for the poor uptake of this scheme is the dearth of
Saankhya Labs, one of the few success stories in India’s semiconductor relevant talent in suffi ciently high numbers to exploit it. Even now,
ecosystem. “At the mid- and senior levels, we have the people available in the target year of 2020, India may not have a large-enough pool of
abundantly. The challenge we face is at the entry level.” potential students and professionals to yield 2,500 Ph.D.s annually in
This is a result of an archaic educational infrastructure at the coun- electronics. Indian universities’ Ph.D. programs have historically been
try’s technical colleges. The top-tier tech institutes, namely the Indian oriented toward academic research rather than the practical research
Institutes of Technology (IITs) and some of the National Institutes of that could fuel a product- and IP-development ecosystem. The link
Technology (NITs), do a good job of ensuring academics are tightly between academics, product development, and the startup environ-
aligned with industry requirements, but that is not the case elsewhere. ment needs to be signifi cantly strengthened, modeled along the lines
In the National Policy on Electronics (NPE) 2012, the fi rst comprehen- of systems in the U.S., China, South Korea, and Taiwan.
sive blueprint to foster the electronics and semiconductor industry in India now has more than a decade of experience in chip design, a
India, the government proposed a roadmap to address industry needs record that represents thousands of man-years of domain knowledge
by awarding 2,500 doctorates in electronic-systems design and manu- and practical experience. And the consumption of electronics in India
facturing annually by 2020. The plan hasn’t gone as expected, though is only increasing. The country needs products and solutions that could
not even those deeply connected with the industry have a clear grasp of fi re its ambition of a US$1 trillion digital economy by 202 , or 20
the country’s progress toward its goal. of the US$ trillion GDP target that the government hopes to hit fi ve
The aim of the Ph.D. target was to nurture more homegrown talent years from now.
for product development and intellectual-property (IP) creation. This The potential is there for a strong ecosystem. The remaining weak
is critical for India, and most industry leaders in the country approve leak is the creation of opportunities to help the country’s tech talent
of the signifi cance that the government has attached to it. “Our talent convert knowledge and experience into products and IP developed both
is one of the best in the chip industry globally,” said Jaswinder Ahuja, in and for India. ■

FEBRUARY 2020 | www.eetimes.eu