This article was compiled from EETOP by Semiconductor Industry Vertical (ID: icViews).The development of India's semiconductor industry seems to have entered the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. 
India's growing focus on the semiconductor industry has led to a surge in the number of chip startups in the country. The proliferation of semiconductor startups could play an important role in growing India's semiconductor ecosystem. "Increasing the number of chip startups is a driving force to attract global semiconductor companies to India, and other countries** have also adopted this strategy," said Helen Jiang, head of semiconductor research and regional manager for Taiwan at IDC. ”
The role of academia
Of particular importance is the role played by academia in the growing number of chip startups in the country. For instance, India's premier engineering school, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M), has launched Shakti, an open-source project initiated by the Reconfigurable Intelligent Systems Engineering (RISE) group. It is credited with developing India's first microprocessor. Another important initiative supported by a reputable institution is Agnit Semiconductors, which is incubated in the GaN Ecosystem Support Center and Incubator (GEECI), located at the Indian Institute for Science (IISC), a renowned institution. AGNIT is the only chip startup to develop gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors. In general, manufacturing GaN semiconductors is not as capital-intensive as other chips. AGNIT recently signed a contract with the Department of Defense to design and develop GaN chips for wireless transmitters in defense applications. While India has the world's third-largest base for tech start-ups, most of them are software-related and typically require a lower capital investment. According to a recent report by Nasscom, India added more than 1,300 active tech startups last year, bringing the total number of active tech startups to 25,000-27,000. According to a report from the Telecommunications Standards Development Institute (TSDSI) of India, less than 5% of start-ups in the country are deep-tech start-ups, while 95% are software-related. India** has proposed several initiatives to boost chip start-ups in the country. For instance, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) recently announced a design-related incentive program for semiconductor start-ups to support two semiconductor start-ups, Aheesa Digital Innovations and Calligo Technologies. In addition, the Chips to Startup (C2S) program aims to train 85,000 people in VLSI and embedded systems design over a five-year period.
Lack of infrastructure and funding
Although the number of start-ups is increasing, they also face some challenges. DeepTech and semiconductor startups lack an ecosystem, which affects their growth every step of the way, whether it's fundraising, development'z'x product, marketing or sales. Probably for this reason, several chip startups in the country are working on chip design, which is unlikely to help the country build a vibrant chip ecosystem. Since most of the parts and components are imported, there is a lack of ** chain. In addition, the country lacks the testing infrastructure required for hardware development. "However, in addition to increasing the number of start-ups, it is crucial to build a comprehensive start-up ecosystem that includes the ** and venture capital industries to support R&D efforts. Without a complete ecosystem, attracting large amounts of money will be challenging. Currently, Indian start-ups are more focused on vertical industry solutions such as healthcare, finance, artificial intelligence, and automotive and electric vehicles. Monitoring how these industries align with the semiconductor industry is key. Chiang explained. Chip startups emphasize this. "Lack of infrastructure and finance** is the main challenge. We need to develop some kind of system to ensure that semiconductor startups can easily get the components and hardware they need. Hareesh Chandrasekar, CEO and co-founder of Agnit Technologies, said. "Even now most of the parts in India are imported, only the assembly is done here. This means the lack of a chain, which is bound to affect deep tech start-ups. We also lack the infrastructure to test here, which adds to the cost for startups. Sunil D**ID, co-chair of the Digital Communications Working Group of the IET's Future Technology Group, said. In addition, deep tech startups often take a long time to break even, which may be one of the reasons for the lack of interest from VCs. In addition, they may not be aware of the technology in this field, which limits their interest. Chennai-based Incore Semiconductors is another startup that mentioned a lack of funding for deep tech startups. "Sometimes venture capitalists are ready to provide funding, but ask us to move outside of the U.S., which is not something we want to do. We want to build a chip company from India. GS Madhusdan, CEO of Incore Semiconductors. The company recently received $3 million in funding from Sequoia Capital. Incore is building a Reduced Instruction Set Computer V (RISC-V) processor core. Further adding to the challenge is the lack of success stories in this area. Saankhya Labs was recently acquired by Tejas Networks, part of the Tata Group, and it may be the only Indian company to develop its own SDR chipset. So, even if the number of chip startups continues to grow, it will take a while for them to start making an impact. "Kanishka Chauhan, Senior Principal Analyst at Gartner, said:"It will take some time for the impact of these startups to grow and manifest. *Disclaimer: This article was created by the original author. The content of the article is its personal point of view, we only share and discuss, does not mean that we agree or agree, if you have any objections, please contact the background.