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  • 17 hours ago
At Semi Connect 2026, NAMTECH explores why industry-embedded education is critical to building India's semiconductor workforce and driving the country's chip manufacturing ambitions forward.
Transcript
00:06Delighted to be here and congratulations for organizing this at such scale and had a very opportune time.
00:16I just want to highlight a couple of points.
00:19The first is that in terms of the human resource and expertise that would be required in Semicon,
00:28the first and the foremost, and we need to demarket these, the first and the foremost is the research work.
00:36Semicon industry is one which is highly research intensive.
00:42Apart from pharma, it is the only industry where almost over 20% of the revenue is invested back in
00:53research and developer.
00:54So what you need is a big cadre of researchers and research infrastructure.
01:01So that is the first point and we've heard that there's going to be 100,000 and something around that
01:08on the research side.
01:10So what it really means is that you don't merely need researchers.
01:16You need a research infrastructure and that research infrastructure cannot be confined to a few institutions.
01:24It has to go across to really build the kind of research talent that is needed.
01:34That is first point.
01:36But also critically important from a research point of view is this, that research in Semicon, like in production in
01:44Semicon, is usually capital intensive.
01:46So it is not possible for one single institution to have the complete research facilities.
01:55So what it means that in the research architecture, there has to be a much more structured collaborative approach where
02:05it's not random collaboration,
02:07but a much more cohesive, structured collaboration based on the strength of each of the institution that needs to come
02:15in.
02:16And this is one of the areas that we at NAMTEC are focused on in terms of bringing together different
02:23institutions.
02:25The second element is that in terms of you then require two kinds of skilling and higher education initiative.
02:35One at the technician level, which is the grassroots, where these technicians, given all the AI and the modern technology
02:43that is there,
02:44need to be converted to technologists so that they are not mere technicians and there is a lot of upskilling
02:51required in that space.
02:54And the second element, which is the freshers who come, who need teaching, there is a very important need for
03:04the educational institutions to get connected to the industry,
03:09to take use cases, to take test beds, where a lot of this education is rooted in an industrial ecosystem.
03:18You need the kind of labs that are replica of industrial ecosystem.
03:24And whether it is technician training or graduate engineers training, the kind of facilities that you need to provide have
03:32to be at par.
03:33And this is another thing that we at NAMTEC are trying to do that basically you bring the technicians and
03:39the graduate engineers in on the same platform in terms of the kind of trading infrastructure that is required.
03:47So what it needs to conclude that we need a much more integrated research ecosystem, which is able to provide
03:58not only the infrastructure, but cohesive and seamless network across institutions.
04:05Second, you need an ecosystem of capacity development, which brings the grassroots technicians at par or in the same level
04:17for which you have to graduate in.
04:19I just want to make one point on the quality and quantity bit.
04:24For me, it's not a quality versus quantity issue.
04:29It's both of them in the current context need to go together.
04:33So that's one point where quality is essential, but quality in today's world needs quantity as well.
04:42On the research side, it is critically important that we build our infrastructure and we bring industry and academia collaboration
04:55much more closer on research.
04:57That is something which is missing in pharma.
05:01In pharma, you see that happens quite a lot globally, less in India, even in pharma.
05:08But Semicon is one industry.
05:11And as Professor Muna was talking about that, if you have to go from X nanometers to Y, then that
05:17research has to be a conquering process.
05:19It cannot be that it has to be done now.
05:23You need to set up an infrastructure which is continuously upgrading, which is continuously in touch with the demands of
05:33the industry.
05:34So an industry-academia research collaboration is the only way forward.
05:40And that collaboration has to happen in two formats.
05:44One is sharing of infrastructure because it's not necessary that the academia needs to create similar infrastructure.
05:55There is something that can be done at the industry level and something that can be done at the academic
06:01institution level.
06:02So that collaboration is essential.
06:05And that collaboration, I think, is critical in case of Semicon because of the capital intensity of the research as
06:14well as of production processes.
06:16So I think the best way to go forward on research is what we call as a manufacturing engineering technology
06:24approach.
06:25The MED approach where research and production come together and they go and and try.
06:32This is a time for paradigmship, for transformation.
06:37And that paradigmship and transformation demands collaboration and coming together.
06:43We need to bring in southern collaboration of institutions, of countries, so that the best in the world can shape.
06:55And it can be shaped not only on the basis of technology, but also on the basis of ethics and
07:02values that we stand for.
07:04I'll stop. Thank you.
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