Recent Current Affairs related to Semiconductor

Samsung Semiconductor India Research has inaugurated a Quantum Research Lab on the IISc campus in Bengaluru to strengthen industry-academia collaboration in quantum technology research.

The lab is established with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) support from SSIR at the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering (DESE) of IISc to advance research in quantum technologies and semiconductor devices under Prof Mayank Shrivastava.

The Technology Development Board has signed an agreement with the Bengaluru-based BigEndian Semiconductors to provide financial assistance of ₹130 crore for the execution of “Project VeerAI”. The total cost of the project is estimated at ₹260 crore.

The financial support is sanctioned under the Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund. The project aims to advance the technology from Technology Readiness Level (TRL)-5 to TRL-9 to ensure its commercial readiness.

PM Narendra Modi has inaugurated the 5th edition of SEMICON India 2026 at the Yashobhoomi India International Convention & Expo Centre in New Delhi, held under the theme “Silicon to Systems: Building the Ecosystem”.

The event is organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in partnership with Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) and concluded with the exchange of 56 MoUs.

The central government has secured investment commitments of around ₹1 lakh crore under Semicon 2.0. It was also announced that the “Odisha Silicon Valley” will be established at Naraj in Cuttack, Odisha.

The Technology Development Board (TDB) has signed an agreement with Multi Nano Sense Technologies Pvt Ltd to provide financial support of ₹37.51 crore under the Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund.

The total approved cost of the project is ₹75.02 crore. The project focuses on the development of a Platform Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) + Analog Front-End (AFE) System-on-Chip (SoC) Multi-Gas Sensor to elevate its technology readiness from Technology Readiness Level (TRL)-4 to TRL-9.

Researchers from the Electrical Engineering department of the IIT Delhi have designed the first working and demonstrable indigenous micro Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) in India.

The researchers demonstrated programmable graphics rendering using a custom floating-point GPU engine. It is to be noted that the engine was implemented entirely in Register Transfer Language (RTL) and mapped to a Spartan-7 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) platform.

Union Minister Rajnath Singh has unveiled several policy initiatives at the ‘VIMARSH 2026’ DRDO-Industry Synergy Meet held in New Delhi under the theme ‘Varta se Vikas’.

During the event, 9 Licensing Agreements for ToT (LAToTs) were handed over to 13 manufacturing partners. DRDO also signed a contract with the Quality Council of India (QCI) for the implementation of the ‘System for Advance Manufacturing Assessment and Rating’ (SAMAR) version 2.0.

A group of scientists led by Dr Meena Mishara has developed indigenous Gallium Nitride (GaN) Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) technology for high-frequency defence applications, was unveiled.

The National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has inaugurated the NIELIT-Infineon Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Semiconductor Manufacturing.

It is to be noted that the CoE is established in collaboration with Infineon Technologies at the NIELIT facility in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

According to a dataset released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Karnataka has emerged as the leading state in semiconductor support under the ChipIN Centre initiative.

The state recorded the highest engagement under the initiative, featuring 81 organisations, 73 chip tape-outs, and 88 lakh hours of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tool usage. The ChipIN Centre initiative was launched by MeitY in 2023 and is established at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has approved 31 new manufacturing proposals worth ₹7,877 crore under the fifth tranche of the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS).

This approval brings the cumulative total of approved applications to 106 projects across 15 states.

The total committed investments under ECMS have reached ₹69,548 crore (as of August 2026), exceeding the original target of ₹59,350 crore.

Chennai-based Aheesa Digital Innovations, a fabless semiconductor startup, has achieved first-pass silicon success with ‘VIHAAN’, the first domestically designed broadband networking System-on-Chip (SoC) in India.

The development of ‘VIHAAN’ is supported under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme of the central government. It is built using the indigenous 64-bit VEGA microprocessor developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), offering a royalty-free RISC-V architecture.

PM Narendra Modi has visited Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to inaugurate and lay the foundation stones for various development projects.

In Andhra Pradesh, he inaugurated and laid the foundation stones for projects worth over ₹17,900 crore. This includes the inauguration of the Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram in the Vizianagaram district, developed at a cost of over ₹5,640 crore by GMR Visakhapatnam International Airport Ltd (GVIAL).

In Karnataka, he inaugurated the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Youth Centre, also known as Viveka Smaraka, in Mysuru to commemorate Swami Vivekananda’s historic visit to the city in 1892.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under the Ministry of Communications has signed an MoU with the Madhya Pradesh government to establish India's first Telecom Manufacturing Zone (TMZ) Phase-I in Gwalior. The agreement was signed at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

A Special Purpose Company (SPC) will be established to implement the project, which is designed on a 'plug-and-play' system.

Paras Semiconductors Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Paras Defence and Space Technologies Ltd (PDST), has signed an MoU with the Madhya Pradesh State Electronics Development Corporation (MPSeDC) to establish a greenfield Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility in the Indore–Ujjain region of Madhya Pradesh. The project involves an investment of ₹6,200 crore.

The National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) has collaborated with the Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL) in Mohali to make the indigenous 1.2 µm Process Design Kit (PDK) available through eChipHub.

It is to be noted that SCL is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The eChipHub platform is managed by NIELIT under a MeitY-funded project titled 'Development of EdTech Platform in Semiconductor Space to Democratize Chip Design and Development Ecosystem for Masses'.

Madhya Pradesh CM Dr. Mohan Yadav has inaugurated the 'MP Tech Growth Conclave 3.0: GCC – Data Centres and Semiconductors' in Bhopal. The summit has secured investment commitments worth over ₹40,000 crore.

Notably, Submer India (Spain) has proposed an investment of ₹19,000 crore ($2 billion) for hyperscale data centre infrastructure in Bhopal. Furthermore, the state government signed an MoU with Google Play to focus on digital innovation, startup growth, and developer capacity building.

The Union Cabinet has approved 'Semicon 2.0' with a total outlay of ₹1.27 lakh crore to holistically develop the semiconductor design and manufacturing ecosystem in India.

The scheme is structured around 6 key pillars: Design, Machines and materials, setting up more fabs, strengthening the Assembly, Testing, Marking, and Packaging (ATMP) and Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) industry, Research & Development (R&D), and Talent development.

To date, the government has approved 12 semiconductor manufacturing units with a cumulative investment of over ₹1.64 lakh crore. Additionally, 24 semiconductor design projects from start-ups and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have been approved for financial support, and 105 entities have been granted access to industry-standard Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the CG Semi Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility in Sanand, Gujarat. This facility marks the commencement of commercial chip production.

The 2nd Pax Silica Summit was held in Washington DC, USA. During the summit, 35 nations, including India, endorsed a Statement on AI, an initiative spearheaded by the USA to establish trusted and resilient supply chains for AI technologies.

The 2-day event was hosted by Jacob Helberg, Secretary of Economic Affairs at the US Department of State. The Indian delegation was headed by S Krishnan, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

The summit marked the expansion of the US-anchored tech security ecosystem, with new signatories including Germany, Greece, and the Netherlands (Europe); Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Panama (America); and Kazakhstan (Central Asia).

The Frontier Tech Hub of the NITI Aayog has released a 10-year roadmap titled “Future of India’s Semiconductor Industry” to strengthen India’s position in the global semiconductor value chain.

The roadmap, unveiled by Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, aims to establish a semiconductor value chain worth $120–$150 billion by 2035, with India potentially capturing 10–13% of the global semiconductor market.

It is to bo noted that India imported semiconductor products worth $150 billion between FY17 and FY25. Projections suggest that annual imports could rise to $240 billion by 2035 if current trends continue.

The Government of Odisha has signed an MoU with Intel Corporation and 3DGS Inc to establish an Advanced Packaging Glass Core Substrate Manufacturing Facility in the Bhubaneswar–Khurda region.

The project involves an estimated investment of $3.3 billion, making it one of the largest high-technology manufacturing investments in India.