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NITI roadmap targets $120–150 bn chip value chain

India's first 10-year semiconductor roadmap, drawn up by the NITI Frontier Tech Hub, sets a 2035 destination and deepens the India Semiconductor Mission.

What happened

NITI Aayog's Frontier Tech Hub released India's first comprehensive 10-year semiconductor roadmap, titled "Future of India's Semiconductor Industry", on 29 May 2026.
The document sets a headline ambition: building a USD 120–150 billion semiconductor value chain by 2035.
It was unveiled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the Minister of Electronics & IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, in the presence of NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Ashok Lahiri, Distinguished Fellow Debjani Ghosh, and India Semiconductor Mission CEO Amitesh Kumar Sinha.
The roadmap is structured around five mutually reinforcing pillars spanning research, capital, manufacturing, talent and trusted-nation partnerships.
It is framed as the operational follow-through to the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0 priorities announced in the Union Budget 2026.
NITI describes the moment as India's shift "from ecosystem creation to ecosystem deepening" — the field has the foundations; the task now is to add value and depth.

Background & context

To read this roadmap correctly, an aspirant needs the lineage it sits inside. A semiconductor — a chip — is the basic building block of every modern electronic device, from phones and cars to satellites and missiles, which is why chip-making is treated as a question of economic and strategic sovereignty, not just industrial policy. India consumes a very large volume of chips but, until recently, manufactured almost none domestically, importing nearly all of its requirement. Closing that gap is the spine of the government's chip programme.

The anchor programme is the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), launched in 2021 with a financial outlay of ₹76,000 crore (about USD 10 billion) and implemented as an independent business division within the Digital India Corporation under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY). ISM was created to administer the broader Semicon India programme and its incentive schemes — fiscal support for setting up semiconductor fabrication units (fabs), display fabs, compound-semiconductor and advanced-packaging/ATMP (Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging) units, and a Design-Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme for fabless design start-ups. The first phase concentrated on getting plants on the ground: anchoring fabs and assembly-and-test units so that a domestic ecosystem could physically exist.

The Union Budget 2026 announced ISM 2.0 — a second phase that pivots from merely attracting fabs toward deepening the value chain: design intellectual property, advanced packaging, compound and wide-bandgap materials, and a skilled talent base. The NITI roadmap is the strategic blueprint that translates those ISM 2.0 priorities into a sequenced, ten-year plan with measurable targets. It is authored not by a line ministry but by the NITI Frontier Tech Hub, an "action tank" set up by NITI Aayog as part of its Viksit Bharat (Developed India by 2047) agenda, which assembled over 100 experts from government, industry and academia to draft the document.

NITI Aayog itself — the National Institution for Transforming India — replaced the Planning Commission on 1 January 2015 as the government's apex public-policy think tank. It has no powers to allocate funds or impose plans; it advises, recommends and convenes. A NITI roadmap, therefore, is a vision-and-recommendation document, not a binding regulation — an important distinction for the "what it is NOT" line below.

For Prelims

Document: "Future of India's Semiconductor Industry" — India's first comprehensive 10-year semiconductor roadmap.
Issued by: the NITI Frontier Tech Hub, an action tank within NITI Aayog set up for the Viksit Bharat agenda; drafted with 100+ experts from government, industry and academia.
Headline target: a USD 120–150 billion semiconductor value chain by 2035.
The five pillars: (1) Pioneering frontier R&D and design IP; (2) Policy & Investment to mobilise long-horizon (patient) capital; (3) Production centred on advanced packaging and compound semiconductors; (4) People across the full talent pyramid; (5) Partnerships with trusted nations and global industry.
Stated goals: position India as a leading global destination for advanced packaging and OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test); emerge as a major supplier of wide-bandgap semiconductors; build leadership in compound-semiconductor manufacturing; strengthen frontier design capability; and create more than 100 advanced semiconductor design IPs.
OSAT / ATMP: the back-end stage of chip-making — assembly, testing and packaging of fabricated wafers into usable chips; it is labour- and capital-lighter than running a leading-edge fab, which is why India targets it first.
Compound vs silicon semiconductors: classic chips use silicon (a single element); compound semiconductors combine two or more elements (e.g. gallium nitride GaN, silicon carbide SiC, gallium arsenide GaAs). The wide-bandgap family (GaN, SiC) tolerates higher voltage, temperature and frequency — vital for electric vehicles, fast chargers, 5G and defence/power electronics.
Anchor programme it deepens: India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), launched 2021, ₹76,000 crore outlay, run by an independent division of Digital India Corporation under MeitY; ISM 2.0 was announced in Union Budget 2026.
NITI Aayog: National Institution for Transforming India; replaced the Planning Commission on 1 January 2015; an advisory think tank — Chairperson is the Prime Minister, headed operationally by a Vice Chairman and a CEO.

What it is NOT: this is a roadmap / vision document from a think tank, not a Cabinet-approved scheme, not an Act or rule, and not a fresh financial outlay. It does not by itself sanction money or build a fab — it sets direction for the ISM, which is the actual implementing mission. Do not confuse the NITI Frontier Tech Hub (the author) with the India Semiconductor Mission (the implementing body under MeitY). Also distinguish a fab (front-end fabrication) from OSAT/ATMP (back-end packaging and test) — the roadmap prioritises the latter.

For UPSC: NITI's first 10-year roadmap, "Future of India's Semiconductor Industry," targets a $120–150 bn chip value chain by 2035 on five pillars (R&D/design-IP · Policy & Investment · Production · People · Partnerships) and backs ISM 2.0 from Budget 2026 — the marker phrase is "ecosystem creation → ecosystem deepening."

Why it matters

Semiconductors are a chokepoint of the modern economy. The chip shortage that stalled global car production in 2021–22 showed how a single concentrated supply chain — overwhelmingly clustered in a few East Asian economies — can paralyse industries continents away. For India, dependence on imported chips is simultaneously an economic-vulnerability problem (a large and growing import bill), a strategic problem (defence, space and telecom systems running on foreign silicon), and a missed-opportunity problem (a fast-growing domestic electronics market that currently adds little value at home).

The roadmap matters because it sequences the response. Rather than chasing the most expensive and capital-intensive prize first — a leading-edge logic fab, which costs tens of billions and where incumbents hold a deep lead — it directs India to build where it can win sooner: advanced packaging and OSAT, compound and wide-bandgap semiconductors tied to fast-growing demand in EVs, renewables and 5G, and design IP, which leverages India's existing strength in chip-design talent. By naming a measurable 2035 destination ($120–150 bn) and a concrete design-IP count (100+), it converts a broad aspiration into something the ISM can be held to. It also signals to global firms which segments India is courting, helping de-risk long-horizon ("patient capital") investment decisions in a field where plants take years to build and longer to pay back.

For Mains

Anchor

A GS-III question on India's semiconductor strategy or indigenisation of critical technologies can be built directly on this roadmap: its five-pillar structure offers a ready analytical skeleton (research, capital, manufacturing, talent, partnerships) for assessing how India proposes to move from a chip importer to a value-chain participant.

Substantiation

Use the hard figures as evidence — a targeted USD 120–150 bn value chain by 2035, 100+ design IPs, the ₹76,000 crore ISM outlay, and the Budget-2026 ISM 2.0 pivot — to quantify the scale and seriousness of India's chip push in an answer.

Exemplification

Cite the roadmap as a live example of NITI Aayog's intended role as a strategy-setting think tank convening government, industry and academia (100+ experts), illustrating cooperative, evidence-led policy formulation under the Viksit Bharat framework.

Problematisation

The document itself reframes the challenge — "ecosystem creation to ecosystem deepening" — implicitly conceding that Phase 1 built foundations but left the value chain shallow: thin in design IP, dependent on imported equipment and materials, and short on advanced-packaging and compound-semiconductor capacity. That admitted gap is the problem statement for a critical-evaluation answer.

Way-forward

The five pillars supply a structured way-forward — mobilising patient capital, prioritising OSAT and wide-bandgap segments where India can compete sooner, building the full talent pyramid, and anchoring trusted-nation partnerships — for questions asking how India should build technological self-reliance.

Position

It records the government's stated stance: India will deepen rather than merely create its chip ecosystem, leaning on design strength and back-end manufacturing rather than racing incumbents at the leading-edge fab frontier first.

Deploys into: indigenisation and development of new technology (GS3.12); IT, computers and frontier tech / strategic self-reliance (GS3.13); the role of NITI Aayog and government policy in mobilising investment for high-technology manufacturing.

Source

NITI Aayog · 2026-05-29 · PRID 2266727 · PIB source ↗

Related: India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) hub · Science & Tech theme · this week's cards — see also the same-day MoU for an Advanced Packaging Glass Core Substrate facility in Odisha (Govt. of Odisha–Intel–3DGS, under ISM).