Under the Chips to Startups programme of the India Semiconductor Mission, the Union minister responsible for Railways, Information and Broadcasting, and Electronics and IT reported notable progress in talent development. He indicated that over the past four years substantial steps have been taken towards a 10-year target of training 85,000 engineers in semiconductor design. World-class EDA tools have been deployed in 315 academic institutions across the country to provide students with practical exposure to chip design. These EDA tools are supported by leading global firms and are accessible to students for hands-on learning. The designed chips are fabricated and tested at the Semiconductor Laboratory, Mohali, enabling experience across the entire workflow from design to fabrication, packaging and testing. The initiative also includes curriculum modules and faculty up-skilling to align academic training with industry needs. The programme has evolved into the world’s largest open-access EDA programme, recording over 18.5 mn hours of tool usage for chip design training to date and continuing to expand. The minister noted that students from Assam to Gujarat and from Kashmir to Kanyakumari are actively engaging in semiconductor design, marking a strategic advance in technological capability and self-reliance. He announced that under India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 the initiative will be expanded from 315 academic institutions to 500 academic institutions to cultivate a sustained pool of trained talent in design, fabrication, packaging and testing across every state. Highlighting global demand dynamics, he said that as the semiconductor industry scales from about USD 800–900 billion (bn) to USD 2 trillion (tn) there is an estimated requirement for nearly two mn skilled professionals, presenting significant employment prospects for young people. The Government remains committed to building a resilient semiconductor ecosystem through talent development, infrastructure creation and industry collaboration, with the objective of positioning India as a global semiconductor hub.