EDA
System
IP
SolvNetPlus
Training & Education
India has long been recognized as a vital hub for technical talent, but its role in the global semiconductor industry has mostly centered on design execution and engineering support.
That role is beginning to expand.
The country’s technology leaders are now seeking greater influence across the semiconductor value chain through product creation, ecosystem partnerships, and innovation — rooted in India’s needs but relevant to global markets.
These aspirations underscored multiple discussions at the recent Synopsys Users Group (SNUG) India, which included an Innovation Forum featuring founders, investors, and technology leaders from across India’s semiconductor sector.
“India’s digital economy has to be powered by semiconductors,” said Ravi Subramanian, chief product management officer at Synopsys. “And the semiconductors that are unique to India and the Indian market are going to have to be born and created [in India].”
“With the talent pool we have, the leadership we have,” added Balajee Sowrirajan, vice president of Intel India, “we are at the cusp of significant innovation and growth.”
That optimism reflects several reinforcing trends across the country’s semiconductor sector: stronger government support, expanding startup activity, greater access to capital, and a growing focus on ownership.
A market ready for ownership
India’s semiconductor future will not mirror other regional models. Instead, it will be shaped by the country’s own market realities and priorities. That means it must support linguistic diversity, provide digital inclusion at scale, navigate infrastructure constraints, and deliver greater power efficiency.
“Frugal AI matters a lot [in India],” Sowrirajan said, emphasizing the need for accessibility, affordability, and reach.
The next phase of innovation must also be “workload centric,” he added, to ensure products are designed around the application needs, economics, and access challenges of the country’s population.
That combination of market need and technical specificity is beginning to shape where capital and institutional support are flowing. According to Ganapathy Subramaniam of Yali Capital, Indian semiconductor, industrial, AI, and systems companies have better access to capital and more government support than ever before.
“There’s a lot of money coming into the deep tech ecosystem,” he said, “so capital is being addressed.”
But ambition and investment will not be enough to scale the country’s semiconductor ecosystem. Greater collaboration within and across the ecosystem is also needed.
Collaboration will determine pace
To maximize the opportunities at hand, Indian technology leaders echoed the need to connect more of the value chain — from chip design to product integration, procurement, and market adoption.
Dheemanth Nagaraj of Agrani Labs — a startup building an “AI GPU for data centers out of India” from the ground up — said success demands coordination across models, compilers, semiconductors, packaging, cooling, and systems.
“It has to be system-level, end-to-end thinking,” Nagaraj said.
India also needs strong collaboration “between the users and the builders,” said Kaushik Raghunath of Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India. He pointed to other markets where automakers and semiconductor companies are working together to build custom chips for vehicle controllers.
“That is something I think will really change the game for India,” Raghunath said.
The country’s next phase of growth will not be driven solely by supply, regional leaders emphasized. It will accelerate when design capability is linked more closely to product demand, deployment, and long-term partnerships across a broader range of semiconductor markets.
Dr. Himanshu Khatri of Axiro Semiconductors highlighted growing domestic capabilities in RF, wireless infrastructure, satellite communications, and advanced analog technologies — areas where India’s own market needs can help shape products with broader global appeal.
“We must aim high and work collaboratively in the next decade,” Dr. Khatri said, “to produce hundreds, if not thousands, of companies that export millions of parts worldwide.”
From participation to influence
This year marks Synopsys’ 30th anniversary in India, a milestone that reflects three decades of engagement with local enterprises, startups, academic institutions, and government entities to move ideas from design to deployment.
That type of collaboration, combined with advanced tools, deep expertise, and execution capacity, will be essential as India pursues its semiconductor ambitions.
“By 2035, the shift has to be from the position of participation to a position of influence,” said Amit Khanuja, vice president of R&D engineering in Synopsys’ IP Group.
If India can turn its longstanding engineering strengths into differentiated technologies that serve domestic needs, global influence will follow.
Continue Reading
Stop Guessing on Multi-Die PG Planning: Let AI Find the IR-Drop Sweet Spot
