Ashok Chandak, President of the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) and President and CEO of SEMI India, on Friday called for a concerted push to develop domestic chip design capabilities for telecom infrastructure, warning that India currently imports a significant portion of the components powering its networks. He argued that the proposed Semicon 2.0 policy could be the catalyst needed to change that equation.

The Import Gap in Indian Telecom

Chandak was unequivocal about the scale of the challenge. 'Most of the telecom infrastructure has the content which is of import. And there are hardly few chips those are, or very limited or nothing, those are designed in India,' he said. The statement underscores a structural vulnerability: as India races to roll out 5G and prepare for 6G, the underlying silicon largely originates overseas, exposing the country to supply-chain and strategic risks.

He added that a deeper understanding of India's own telecom requirements and technical specifications would be the starting point for building a meaningful domestic chip design ecosystem. Without that groundwork, even generous incentive schemes risk funding generic designs that do not address Indian network needs.

What Semicon 2.0 Could Change

The proposed Semicon 2.0 policy, according to Chandak, is positioned to incentivise local chip designs and the development of indigenous intellectual property (IP). 'The Semicon 2.0 policy would encourage and help the local designs of those chips — so local design and IPRs to meet the requirements those are required for telecom infrastructure,' he said.

This comes amid a broader government push to build out the full semiconductor value chain on Indian soil. The first iteration of the Semicon India programme committed ₹76,000 crore to attract chip fabrication and design investment, with companies such as Tata Electronics and Micron Technology having signed agreements under that framework. Semicon 2.0 is expected to go further, targeting not just manufacturing but also deepening domestic IP generation.

Growth Capital for SMEs a Critical Gap

Beyond policy incentives, Chandak flagged access to growth capital as a critical missing piece for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the semiconductor and electronics space. India's chip design community is largely composed of startups and mid-sized firms that struggle to compete with well-funded international counterparts. Without dedicated risk capital and scale-up support, even technically capable Indian firms may fail to reach commercial viability.

He argued that bridging this financing gap is as important as the incentive architecture itself — a point that industry bodies including IESA have repeatedly raised with policymakers.

Silicon to Systems: The Bigger Picture

Chandak also drew a distinction between two complementary national initiatives: India Mobile Congress, which focuses on telecom infrastructure, equipment, and deployment, and Semicon India, which targets the full semiconductor value chain from design through manufacturing. He described them as 'different but interconnected components' of the same technology ecosystem — a relationship he characterised as 'silicon to systems.'

Notably, the convergence of these two tracks is increasingly seen as essential for India's ambitions in 6G, where nations that control both the network infrastructure and the underlying chip IP will hold a decisive strategic advantage.

India on the Global Semiconductor Map

Chandak expressed cautious optimism about India's rising global standing. 'India is at a very different stage now, where globally, with the efforts of Prime Minister Modi and his policies and his colleagues and departments, India has been brought to the global map where globally, the international, worldwide, many companies and countries are trusting now India, actually,' he said.

The remarks reflect a broader industry sentiment that geopolitical shifts — particularly the drive to diversify supply chains away from a single geography — have created a window of opportunity that India must act on swiftly. Whether Semicon 2.0 arrives with the right design and funding architecture will determine how much of that opportunity is converted into durable industrial capacity.