The Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL) in Mohali, India's sole public sector semiconductor facility which is being transformed into a major hub of the nation's chip-making ambitions, will remain firmly under government control, electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday.
The government hopes that the Rs 4,500 crore ongoing modernisation work at the facility will make SCL a major player in India’s semiconductor ecosystem.
"There will be no question of privatisation of SCL," Vaishnaw said while addressing the device handover ceremony of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's Chips-to-Startup (C2S) programme.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has charted a clear roadmap for the transformation of the institution, which will continue to support India's talent pool and strategic requirements, he said.
Vaishnaw laid down a comprehensive five-point roadmap for the transformation of the facility, set up in 1984. The facility's manufacturing capacity is set to increase almost 100 times, he said. SCL will also undergo a substantial change in the technology it uses. "It will take a big jump from the obsolete technology being used here," he said.
"SCL will provide a tape out facility for students and researchers. No commercial foundry would do it," Vaishnaw said, citing this as a major reason behind the government deciding against its privatisation.
As many as 298 universities will gain access to the world's latest electronic design automation (EDA) tools under the initiative to design chips. "Very few universities in the world have the most modern, industry-grade tools for SCL design," he noted, calling India's semiconductor development ecosystem "unique".
SCL remains the only integrated device manufacturing facility in the country providing end-to-end solutions for the development of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), opto-electronics devices and micro electromechanical system devices. The facility's expansion will require an additional 25 acres of land, for which the minister has requested support from the Punjab government.
The government plans to establish a consortium involving the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing; SCL; the Defence, Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Indian Space Research Organisation and other institutions to meet strategic requirements and fulfil India’s ambitions of self-reliance in designing and manufacturing chips for defence and other strategic applications.
Launched in January 2022, the C2S initiative aims to train up to 85,000 people in very large-scale integration and embedded system design. It also seeks to create a repository of reusable intellectual property, 175 ASICs and working the prototypes of 20 system on chips. Under the initiative, designs have already been handed over to more than 30 institutions, democratising chip design capabilities across the country, the minister said.
The event was attended by SCL Mohali director-general Kamaljeet Singh and Punjab state railway minister Ravneet Singh Bittu.
The government hopes that the Rs 4,500 crore ongoing modernisation work at the facility will make SCL a major player in India’s semiconductor ecosystem.
"There will be no question of privatisation of SCL," Vaishnaw said while addressing the device handover ceremony of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's Chips-to-Startup (C2S) programme.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has charted a clear roadmap for the transformation of the institution, which will continue to support India's talent pool and strategic requirements, he said.
Vaishnaw laid down a comprehensive five-point roadmap for the transformation of the facility, set up in 1984. The facility's manufacturing capacity is set to increase almost 100 times, he said. SCL will also undergo a substantial change in the technology it uses. "It will take a big jump from the obsolete technology being used here," he said.
"SCL will provide a tape out facility for students and researchers. No commercial foundry would do it," Vaishnaw said, citing this as a major reason behind the government deciding against its privatisation.
As many as 298 universities will gain access to the world's latest electronic design automation (EDA) tools under the initiative to design chips. "Very few universities in the world have the most modern, industry-grade tools for SCL design," he noted, calling India's semiconductor development ecosystem "unique".
SCL remains the only integrated device manufacturing facility in the country providing end-to-end solutions for the development of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), opto-electronics devices and micro electromechanical system devices. The facility's expansion will require an additional 25 acres of land, for which the minister has requested support from the Punjab government.
The government plans to establish a consortium involving the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing; SCL; the Defence, Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Indian Space Research Organisation and other institutions to meet strategic requirements and fulfil India’s ambitions of self-reliance in designing and manufacturing chips for defence and other strategic applications.
Launched in January 2022, the C2S initiative aims to train up to 85,000 people in very large-scale integration and embedded system design. It also seeks to create a repository of reusable intellectual property, 175 ASICs and working the prototypes of 20 system on chips. Under the initiative, designs have already been handed over to more than 30 institutions, democratising chip design capabilities across the country, the minister said.
The event was attended by SCL Mohali director-general Kamaljeet Singh and Punjab state railway minister Ravneet Singh Bittu.