Micron CEO: India Needs Semiconductor Manufacturing Focus

Gandhinagar, Jan 11 (PTI) Over 100 Indian institutions offer semiconductor design curricula, but hardly any of them focuses on manufacturing and process technology, a top official from global memory and storage major Micron Technology said on Thursday.

There is significant global demand for such chip engineers, its president and chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra said at the 10th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit here.

"While more than 100 Indian institutions provide a semiconductor design curriculum, hardly any focus on semiconductor manufacturing and process technology. A significant global demand exists for manufacturing engineers and technicians," Mehrotra said.

Speaking to PTI, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan hailed Micron president's suggestion and said that India is keen to provide manpower right from research and development to the market when it comes to semiconductors.

"We have to capture the global expectation," he said, adding that India has strengths like demographic dividend and quality educational institutions.

Pradhan said that the country needs to "reimagine" the entire skilling scenario.

Meanwhile, Union minister for electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said that as many as 104 universities and institutions are offering courses, including doctoral studies, on semiconductors.

He added that globally, there is a demand for 10 lakh professionals specialising in semiconductors and India is keen to capture that opportunity.

Vaishnaw urged Micron to set up a centre of excellence at IIT Gandhinagar as a knowledge partner and promised to infuse the required resources for the facility.

Such a centre would help deepen research and development activities in the field of semiconductor and validate new ideas, Vaishnaw said.

Micron also announced a tie-up with global steel major Arcelor Mittal for skill development in the semiconductor space.