Demand for engineering talent to double

The semiconductor industry in India is growing at a scorching pace of 25% against the global average of around 5% every year. The long-term prospects too look encouraging with government chipping in to support the industry. This has made the sector hot and is translating into great career opportunities for Indians who opt for sciences and decide to venture out into this niche profile. STMicroelectronics India HR director Praneet Mehrish spoke with ET about the emerging trends in the sector. Excerpts:

As an employer, how do you think the semiconductor industry in India has shaped up?

I believe the semiconductor industry, especially the design & development activities, is fast maturing. After the IT boom, embedded software was a natural progression for both MNCs and Indian companies. Today, about 82% of the people engaged in the semiconductor industry are in embedded software followed by about 11% in VLSI(very large scale integration ) design and 7% in hardware board design. More and more high-end projects are coming to India. The design capability of Indian engineers is being recognised globally and complex work (full chip solutions) is increasingly being entrusted to India. The demand for engineering talent in the next few years is almost going to double. In fact, we would have a problem of plenty of jobs and lower supply.

What are the major roadblocks in the growth of this industry and how much of it is attributed to the talent crunch?

There are two aspects to this. One, the impact of the rate of increase of business in the electronics industry, which would directly impact the number and quality of jobs being created in the semiconductor industry , especially in design & development. Related to this is the lack of manufacturing capability. The infrastructure in India is also not yet ready to support the requirements of a fabrication unit (Fabs).

Two, and this is very important, is the availability of quality and training for industry engineers available over the next decade. At the moment, this would be an area of concern going forward. Apart from the fact that there are not enough institutions running industry-specific courses, we do not have the right number and quality of faculty that is needed. A large gap exists in what the industry needs and what the institutes can deliver. Current faculty is not exposed to the advancements made by the industry in semiconductor design and related areas.

What’s the government’s contribution towards the growth of this industry? How is it doing to encourage research?

The government had recently announced the semiconductor policy framework with incentives to companies to set up Fabs in India. We have seen some announcements by some companies, but it’s early days yet. The government can certainly expedite and incentivise the delivery of adequate number of courses in VLSI design, embedded software and board-level design in engineering colleges. The government also needs to seriously look at how to increase the number of students taking up science subjects after the 10th class boards. Currently, there are a large number of students switching to commerce or arts even though they have scored very high in physics and maths in the 10th board exams.

What about industry-level initiatives to encourage students?

Industry is increasingly getting engaged with educational institutions. Besides welcoming six-month internships to engineering students, companies are also setting up research labs in many colleges. At STMicroelectronics, we have not only set up three such labs in different colleges, but have also started engaging faculty from tier-1 institutes to present short programmes to our engineers. These have been very well received. It is also helping the faculty from these institutes to come in direct contact with the latest technology and progress made by industry.