Latest news with #JaswinderAhuja
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
Delhi NCR delivers the chips
Representative photo About a decade ago, German auto major BMW was looking to design a chip for its connected car ecosystem – but they had doubts about handing over the task to a design centre in India, let alone in Noida. But as it turned out, the project was successfully completed by the Noida-based team of Freescale Semiconductor, proving that the region had both the talent and the expertise to compete on the global stage. The foundations for this success were actually laid decades earlier. In the late 1980s. European chip major STMicroelectronics (ST) was among the first companies to recognise the potential of Indian engineering talent , setting up operations in Noida. American chip maker Freescale Semiconductor (later acquired by Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors, which has design centres in India) and Cadence Design Systems were also among the early movers in Delhi NCR. And just this month, Japan's Renesas Electronics set up 3 nm chip design centres in Noida and Bengaluru. Today, the region is home to a few dozen chip design centers. The region's proximity to top engineering institutes such as IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, BITS Pilani, IIIT Delhi, and Delhi Technological University has ensured a steady influx of skilled professionals. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Switch to UnionBank Rewards Card UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo STMicroelectronics began building a chip design team by training young engineers in Europe. Their early faith in Indian talent laid the groundwork for what is now a robust R&D centre in Greater Noida – their largest design centre outside Europe. According to Vivek Sharma, MD of the India unit, the Greater Noida campus today supports global chip design activities including system-on-chip (SoC), architecture, IC layout, circuit design, and silicon validation. 'We produce about 50 patents annually. The teams here contribute to automotive, industrial, personal electronics and other applications,' he says. Cadence's Noida centre has grown to become its largest R&D hub outside the US. The company has 4,300 employees in India at five locations: Noida, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. 'We specialise in developing software tools and platforms for electronic design automation (EDA) which support the entire chip and system design process,' says Jaswinder Ahuja, corporate VP and India MD. Cadence tools developed in India are used globally for circuit design, layout, verification, and packaging – including complex 3D IC designs. Taiwan's chip maker MediaTek set up shop in India in 2004 and now runs two major R&D centres, in Noida and Bengaluru. The Noida team focuses on software design for smart TVs, Chromebooks, Android system software, wireless communication and other products. 'We actively file patents from our India centres,' says Anku Jain, MD of MediaTek India. He credits local talent, especially in protocol stack development and embedded systems, for enabling growth. The company is now expanding into automotive and IoT. Qualcomm, another major chip player, has built up strong operations in India including Noida, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. Qualcomm India president Savi Soin says, 'In regions like Delhi NCR and across our sites in India we are building diverse teams that reflect the complexity and scale of Qualcomm's innovation engine.' India plays a pivotal role in chip innovation, including in AI, ondevice intelligence, and connectivity. The company's collaborative work with customers and startups is part of a broader push to develop scalable solutions from India for the local, regional and world markets. Why Delhi NCR? One big reason is, as we said before, proximity to top engineering institutions. Sharma of ST notes, 'The region has always had strong engineering talent, and good international connectivity made it a natural fit for global collaboration.' Vivek Tyagi, a veteran of the semiconductor space and MD of Analog Devices India, says once a few major companies – like ST and Motorola – came in, it was natural for others to follow. That in turn created more talent. The ecosystem has today matured substantially. ST's Greater Noida campus now hosts the Da Vinci Innovation Studio, which connects startups, universities, and ST teams to build collaborative strengths. Qualcomm runs mentorship programmes and collaborates with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to help strengthen India's IP and chip ecosystem. All of this is translating into intellectual property and real business impact. From Qualcomm's Snapdragon platforms to AI workloads on edge devices, engineers here are deeply involved. As global demand for semiconductors rises and nations push for supply chain resilience, India's, particularly Delhi NCR's role is growing. The centres here are key to the next generation of chip innovation. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
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Business Standard
15-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
We need product cos, not just services delivery resources: Jaswinder Ahuja
As a partner in India's semiconductor mission, California-based Cadence Design Systems has played an important role in the country's tryst with semiconductors. Its managing director for India, and corporate vice-president, International Headquarters, Jaswinder Ahuja, who has been at the helm here since 1996, now has a bird's eye view. He has seen India's transition. In a video interview with Surajeet Das Gupta, Ahuja sheds light on the challenges and opportunities in India in this space. Edited excerpts: While the manufacturing side of semiconductor has taken off, the design-led incentive scheme (DLI) faces many challenges. What is your assessment on the progress? We have seen a great beginning in the manufacturing side, as the new plants being built are pulling in an entire ecosystem to support them, from equipment to chemicals and gases etc. In DLI, it's a chicken and egg situation, and its progress is not in line with the expectations. There are companies with intent to work in this space but they find the incentives inadequate or there are strings attached to it. As you talk to many of the prospective companies, are there any other challenges which need to be tackled under the DLI programme? For every project, the government — under DLI — is offering ₹15 crore. It is too little, almost inconsequential. If you look at the total project cost like manpower, tools and cost of buying some IP and building a prototype, when you add up, it is too little. For a non-complex design, the subsidy of 50 per cent should be around ₹100 crore. Are there any other issues? Yes. For instance, under the scheme you get the reimbursement only after spending, and considering the delays they create working capital challenges. Second, there are questions as to why it should be 50 per cent and not more? And many bigger players like L&T say they should also be eligible and not just smaller companies. There is also a demand that MNCs should be allowed to participate, but I think that should be a red line. So what is the feedback from the government? My understanding is that the government is analysing all the feedback and plans to use them to work on a revamped DLI 2.0, it is expected to address some of these concerns. But the real challenge is where are those companies and entrepreneurs who have compelling business ideas, that is what we have to watch once the DLI scheme is updated. We don't want to be only a services delivery resource like the GCCs. For our aspirations in the semiconductor space we need to have product companies. Why have PE funds stayed away from funding design-led companies, but have a bet on AI? PE funds see a clear line of sight in AI application companies on generating revenues and profitability in the next 12-24 months. If you invest in a semiconductor design it takes five years to get a product out, seven years to generate money and 10 years for Ebitda. But most PE funds exit in 7-8 years. While we talk of the great chip design talent pool available in India for the world, we don't see too many entrepreneurs or startups in the space. What is the disconnect? We do have amazing design talent, but that design talent is focused on execution. We do not have product business expertise in India, who understand the market, identify an opportunity, define a product and build a business case around it. In MNCs, it is undertaken by a separate team in the global headquarters. Once this is done, then a team builds the architecture that is again done in the headquarters. The government wants to design and build a 'made in India' GPU. Do you see it to be feasible? The US has placed certain restrictions on GPU exports which are designed mostly by Nvidia and AMD. So there is a possibility of a supply demand mismatch, especially when GPUs are key for AI and machine learning compute. Developing GPUs in India… if we start from now, producing it in volumes will take five to seven years. Can India do it, yes as like others, it does not have to start from the scratch. For the time being, there is a larger opportunity for startups in AI, in segments like automobiles and others. This compute architecture will solve the problems but at a different price point and performance.
