The Indian Semiconductor Mission, or ISM, is one of the most ambitious initiatives undertaken by the government in decades. Out of Rs 76,000 crore earmarked for production-linked incentives, roughly Rs 65,000 crore has already been committed, and the mission supports 10 major projects across the value chain.

This is all good and great for building the infrastructure and facilities for making chips, but the right kind of human capital is just as important—and largely absent.

The ISM launched a skilling programme in July 2023 to address precisely that problem, aiming to train the professionals who would then populate India’s fledgling fabs. To do this, the ISM, the Indian Institute of Science, and California-headquartered Lam Research teamed up to use the latter’s virtual fab simulator, SEMulator3D, to prepare Indian college students for a career in semiconductor manufacturing.

The hitch is that this doesn’t really give students hands-on learning, so they aren’t truly prepared for life in fabs. The Ken reporter Keshav Pransukhka found out why in the latest edition of Make India Competitive Again, as read by Rachel Varghese.

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