Chip leaders say India needs more factory talent, not just design

Talent decides where chip companies invest, and India has too few people trained for chip factories.

Semicon Weekly · 4 November 2026

In short

At the ISIG summit in New Delhi, global chip leaders said talent decides where chip companies invest.
ISIG's CEO Salah Nasri said India is strong in chip design but has too few people for chip manufacturing.
ISIG India head Santosh Kumar asked students to also look at chemical and materials engineering for chip jobs.

Key numbers

DesignIndia is strong

FactoriesToo few trained people

₹6,200 crParas Semiconductors' planned plant in MP

The International Semiconductor Industry Group (ISIG) held its executive summit in New Delhi.
Its CEO Salah Nasri said talent is the main reason chip companies choose a country to invest in.
He said India has strong chip design talent but too few people trained for chip factories.
ISIG India head Santosh Kumar asked students to look at core subjects like chemical engineering and materials science. His company, Paras Semiconductors, plans a ₹6,200 crore chip plant in Madhya Pradesh.

A chip factory needs process, equipment, materials and quality engineers, not only designers.
These roles are hard to fill, so trained people are valuable.

New fabs and packaging plants need process, materials and equipment engineers, so freshers with these skills may face less competition than in design.
ECE students can learn device physics, process steps and yield basics.
Chemical, materials and mechanical students have a real path into chip companies too.

Training factory talent at home makes India more attractive for new chip plants.
Jobs spread across many branches of engineering, not just ECE and CS.

ISIG: International Semiconductor Industry Group, a global chip industry body.
Chip manufacturing: making chips in a fab: printing, etching and layering circuits on wafers.
Materials science: the study of materials like silicon, metals and chemicals used to build chips.