On 7 February 1989, a fire at Semiconductor Complex Limited in Mohali severely damaged one of India’s earliest efforts to establish an indigenous semiconductor manufacturing capability.
The incident has since become a symbol of a technological opportunity lost. Yet India cannot afford to devote the present debate to what might have happened had the fire never occurred. The far more important question is what must happen now.
India is committing unprecedented resources to semiconductor manufacturing. Twelve projects have been approved under the India Semiconductor Mission, with cumulative investment exceeding ₹1.64 lakh crore. In July 2026, the Union Cabinet approved Semicon 2.0 with an outlay of ₹1.275 lakh crore.
Three facilities have already commenced commercial production. Other projects are under construction, while the first major silicon fab supported by the programme is scheduled to be commissioned in 2028.
These are substantial achievements. But buildings, incentives, and equipment do not by themselves create a semiconductor industry. India urgently needs the people who can operate these facilities.
The Real Shortage Is on the Production Floor
India does not lack engineering talent. It is home to a significant share of the global semiconductor design workforce. Indian engineers hold critical positions across the world’s leading technology companies, while major international corporations operate design and research centres throughout the country.
Chip design and chip manufacturing, however, demand very different capabilities.
A semiconductor facility requires process engineers, equipment technicians, cleanroom specialists, quality professionals, materials experts, maintenance teams, production managers, safety personnel, and specialists in assembly, testing, and packaging.
These workers cannot acquire the necessary competence through a short theoretical course. They must learn to operate in an environment where a microscopic particle, a slight temperature variation, an incorrect calibration, or a small process deviation can compromise an entire batch and cause major financial losses.
Training employees only after they enter a functioning plant is slow and expensive. It places an additional burden on manufacturers, delays production readiness, and increases operational risk during the most sensitive stage of a new facility.
If India waits until its factories are completed before preparing their workforce, it will lose valuable time.
Training Must Begin Before the Fabs Open
India needs dedicated semiconductor training centres established through cooperation among the government, industry, academic institutions, and experienced international technology partners.
Such centres must replicate real manufacturing conditions rather than remain conventional classrooms. They should include cleanroom environments, training equipment, process control systems, laboratories, production simulations, and practical programmes covering maintenance, safety, quality control,, and fault diagnosis.
The objective should be clear. An employee entering a new facility should not begin from zero. That employee should arrive with a practical understanding of production discipline, safety requirements, equipment protocols, and the extreme sensitivity of semiconductor processes.
India has already invested heavily in chip design education. According to government figures, about 68,000 students have received training through advanced Electronic Design Automation tools, with hundreds of academic institutions participating in national programmes.
This is a valuable foundation, but it does not by itself solve the shortage of fab-ready personnel.
India needs more than additional chip designers. It needs thousands of practically trained professionals who can enter advanced manufacturing facilities and operate them safely, efficiently, and at internationally competitive quality levels.
Technology Does Not Arrive With the Machine
The second urgent challenge is technology absorption.
India can purchase advanced equipment, but it cannot acquire decades of operating experience through a single procurement order. The most valuable knowledge in semiconductor manufacturing is not contained only in equipment manuals. It lies in knowing how to stabilise a process, improve yield, identify a problem before it stops production, and adapt manufacturing to local materials, infrastructure, and operating conditions.
India should therefore prioritise partnerships that provide genuine transfer of knowledge, not merely the delivery and installation of machinery.
Every major international agreement should include the training of Indian instructors, the creation of local maintenance capability, access to operational expertise, support for developing curricula and a structured path towards professional independence.
Real technology transfer is not the receipt of documents. It is the creation of an Indian capacity to understand, operate, maintain, adapt and eventually improve the technology.
International partners can accelerate this process, but the ultimate objective must be knowledge that remains in India.
A National Requirement Demanding an Immediate Solution
Semiconductors are no longer merely a commercial sector. They are national infrastructure.
Chips are embedded in communications systems, vehicles, medical equipment, energy networks, satellites, aircraft, defence systems and digital infrastructure. Sovereign capability in this sector directly affects economic resilience, national security, and India’s ability to withstand disruption across global supply chains.
India does not need to begin by manufacturing only the smallest and most advanced chips in the world. There is enormous demand for proven technologies serving automobiles, power electronics, sensors, communications, space, defence, medical devices and industrial automation.
In these segments, India can build a powerful competitive position by combining its existing design capabilities, enormous domestic market, expanding industrial base and a workforce equipped with practical manufacturing skills.
The window of opportunity, however, will not remain open indefinitely.
The United States, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and China are investing heavily in semiconductor manufacturing, research, and workforce development. They are competing for many of the same manufacturers, technologies, and specialists.
India must move quickly, but it must also move intelligently.
India Needs a National Training Network
One training centre will not be enough. India needs a national network of semiconductor training institutions aligned with the emerging manufacturing clusters across different states.
These centres should operate under common standards and provide programmes at different professional levels, from technicians and equipment operators to process engineers, quality specialists, plant managers and industrial development experts.
A national train-the-trainer programme is equally important. India should not remain permanently dependent on foreign instructors. During the initial phase, experienced organisations from the United States, Israel, Japan, Europe, Taiwan, and other technology economies can provide expertise. At the same time, India must develop its own instructors and institutions so the system can expand at the pace required by the industry.
Dedicated pathways should also be created for graduates of technical schools, diploma holders, young engineers, military veterans and employees from adjacent industries. Not every role in a semiconductor facility requires an advanced university degree. Many positions require discipline, precision, responsibility, and high-quality vocational preparation.
With the right training model, the semiconductor mission can become not only a technological engine but also a source of tens of thousands of skilled and well-paid jobs.
Measure Capability, Not Announcements
The success of the India Semiconductor Mission should not be measured only by the number of approved projects or the value of announced investments.
India should measure how many people have received practical production training, how many Indian instructors have been certified, how much technology has been absorbed locally, how many operational problems can be solved without assistance from abroad, and how many Indian suppliers have entered the manufacturing chain.
A fab built without an adequately prepared workforce can become an expensive asset that fails to reach the required output. Advanced equipment without local maintenance expertise can create a new dependency instead of technological sovereignty. An international agreement without meaningful knowledge transfer can leave India as a customer when it should become a technology partner.
Investment must therefore be matched by a national implementation plan for skills, operational readiness, and knowledge retention.
India’s Opportunity Is Now
The Mohali fire demonstrates how easily technological momentum can be lost. Its more relevant lesson is that building a facility is never enough. A nation must build a system capable of retaining knowledge, preparing people, protecting infrastructure, and continuing to advance after a crisis.
India in 2026 is in a far stronger position than it was in 1989. It has human capital, a vast market, world-class design capabilities, an expanding industrial base, and strong government support.
It must now complete the missing layer: practical industrial training, effective technology absorption, and the creation of local expertise on a national scale.
The global race is not only about who can build semiconductor fabs. It is about who possesses the people capable of operating them and who can transform imported technology into sovereign industrial competence.
If India acts now, it will do more than narrow the gap. It can become one of the world’s leading centres for semiconductor design, manufacturing, and workforce development.