Union Minister Inaugurates 4th Semicon India futureDESIGN Roadshow in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: In a significant development for Trivandrum and Kerala’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, Union Minister of State for Electronics & IT, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, and Jal Shakti, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, addressed students, researchers, and industry leaders at the 4th Semicon India futureDESIGN Roadshow held on March 6, 2024, at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).

During his address, Minister Chandrasekhar emphasized the enormous opportunity for entrepreneurs in Trivandrum and Kerala to be at the forefront of designing and reimagining future systems, devices, and products. He aligned this vision with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aspiration for India to become a global semiconductor hub, emphasizing that the future lies not only in semiconductor manufacturing but also in designing chips and IPs across industries.

The roadshow featured discussions on the futureDESIGN initiative and the inauguration of the ChipIN Centre, one of the largest facilities offering a range of design flows for semiconductor chip design. The centre aims to bring advanced chip design infrastructure to the doorstep of India’s semiconductor design community. It provides centralized design facilities with tools covering the entire chip design cycle, including Front-end design, Back-end design, PCB design & analysis for Digital, Analog, RF & Mixed Signal designs, going up to 5nm or advanced nodes. More details are available at ChipIN Centre.

Minister Chandrasekhar commended the ChipIN Centre’s efforts to engage with around 10,000 students from 120 academic institutions and 20 start-ups, with plans to extend access to state-of-the-art EDA Tools to 85,000 students at B.Tech, M.Tech, and PhD levels for designing semiconductor chips.

The roadshow witnessed strong industry support for ChipIN Centre’s initiatives. Keysight Technologies, Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems, and Siemens EDA extended their EDA tools at ChipIN, benefiting academia and start-ups. Siemens EDA further contributed the Veloce Emulator with a capacity of about 650 million gate designs to start-ups and academia.

During the event, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) also announced financial support for two semiconductor design startups/MSMEs under the DLI scheme. WiSig Networks and GreenPMU Semi are the selected startups that aim to design innovative solutions in 5G and energy harvesting power management ICs, respectively.

The roadshow showcased the collaborative efforts between the government, academia, and industry to build an innovation ecosystem that will shape a bright future for the semiconductor industry in India. Directors from Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (ISRO) and Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (ISRO), along with senior members from the semiconductor industry, were also present at the event.