India's design-linked incentive (DLI) scheme is delivering tangible results, with Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw highlighting the successful silicon bringup of the country's first flagship Edge AI System-on-Chip (SoC), the 'NETRA A2000', designed at the advanced 12nm technology node by Thiruvananthapuram-based fabless semiconductor startup Netrasemi. The chip is now being readied for commercial production, marking a significant milestone for India's domestic semiconductor ambitions.

What the NETRA A2000 Chip Does

The NETRA A2000 is built for high-performance, real-time Edge AI applications — powering smart vision devices across surveillance, automotive, robotics, and drones. It integrates smart vision capabilities and real-time video analytics, enabling on-device AI for smart cameras and Edge AI platforms without reliance on cloud processing.

The chip is fabricated at TSMC's 12nm advanced process node in Taiwan and targets high-TOPS AI performance, computer vision, video streaming, secure boot, and significant I/O capabilities. It features Netrasemi's in-house Neural Processor (NPU), Vision Cores (VPU), Image Signal Processor (ISP), Crypto-Engines, and other hardware acceleration IP cores, alongside the company's patented Heterogeneous Graph-Stream Parallel Processing architecture.

What the Government Said

Minister Vaishnaw took to X to applaud the achievement, posting: 'Netrasemi has designed India's first Edge AI System-on-Chip (SoC) 'NETRA A2000', at advanced 12 nm node. At commercial scale, this will power smart vision devices for surveillance, automotive, robotics, drones, etc.'

The minister framed the development as direct evidence of the DLI scheme's effectiveness, noting that both the Design-Linked Incentive (DLI) and Design Infrastructure Support (DIS) schemes played a key role in reaching this milestone.

Role of the DLI Scheme

Netrasemi was among the first four startups selected for ₹15 crore DLI support in 2023 by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The company has since raised a total of ₹125 crore in funding. The DLI scheme, part of India's broader semiconductor push, provides financial incentives and infrastructure access to domestic chip design firms — an ecosystem that did not meaningfully exist in India a decade ago.

Commercial Roadmap and Industry Partnerships

'Our SoCs go beyond conventional AI/ML integration by combining proprietary hardware acceleration IPs with domain-specific optimisations tailored for high-performance, real-time edge AI,' said Jyothis Indirabhai, Co-founder and CEO of Netrasemi.

'We are currently working with several leading OEMs to facilitate early sample evaluations, co-development, and advanced R&D initiatives,' Indirabhai added. The chip design is being shared with select Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for joint R&D to develop further commercial use cases. According to the startup, commercial production at TSMC, Taiwan is likely to begin next year.

What This Means for India's Semiconductor Ambitions

This comes amid India's accelerating push to build a domestic semiconductor ecosystem, backed by the government's ₹76,000 crore India Semiconductor Mission. The NETRA A2000 represents the first concrete design-to-silicon outcome from the DLI pipeline — a proof point that India can produce globally competitive chip IP, even if fabrication currently remains offshore. The next test will be whether such designs can anchor domestic manufacturing partnerships as India's fab infrastructure matures.