Chips to Startups programme train over 68,000 students to boost design ecosystem

Business To Business, New Delhi, 14 August 2026: More than 68,000 students have been trained under the Chips to Startups (C2S) programme so far, to strengthen India’s semiconductor design ecosystem, according to the government. C2S Programme aims to generate 85,000 numbers of industry-ready manpower at B.Tech, M.Tech, and PhD levels specialised in semiconductor chip design area, says Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Jitin Prasada. Under the C2S programme, access to advanced Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools from companies like Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens EDA, Ansys, Keysight, Silvaco, Renesas-Altium, AMD-Xilinx, AsterQuanta, Compcarta, Cadre and AMD-Xilinx has been provided to 332 academic institutions across the country. Participating institutions have successfully taped out 254 chip designs, comprising 175 designs at the 180 nm technology node at SCL, Mohali, and 79 designs at overseas semiconductor foundries, informed the minister. In Andhra Pradesh, 23 academic institutions have been provided access to advanced EDA tools under the C2S Programme, with cumulative utilisation exceeding 4.34 lakh tool hours. The projects are currently at various stages of design and development. Depending on their scope and maturity, they are expected to progress towards prototype validation, including tape-out at semiconductor foundries, wherever applicable, said Prasada in Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, electronics hardware technology parks (EHTP) have strengthened India’s export-oriented electronics manufacturing ecosystem. The EHTP units have risen to 79, with exports crossing Rs 11,100 crore in FY2025-26. The EHTP scheme is a 100 per cent export-oriented scheme to promote exports of electronic hardware from India and STPI has been providing Statutory Services on a single-window Clearance System under EHTP Scheme. There is no fund allocation under the EHTP scheme, informed the government. The incentives and fiscal benefits available to eligible EHTP units are governed by the provisions of the ‘Foreign Trade Policy 2023’. These include duty-free import/procurement of capital goods, raw materials, components, consumables, spares, and other permitted goods required for export production, subject to the provisions of the Foreign Trade Policy; permission for Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) sales in accordance with the provisions of the Foreign Trade Policy; and other operational and procedural benefits, including simplified customs procedures and single-window statutory clearances.