India will need 20 lakh deep tech engineers by 2030, says IESA’s Krishna Moorthy

India will require an additional pool of at least 20 lakh deep tech engineers by 2030 to meet its growth aspirations for semiconductor and electronic design manufacturing sectors, said Krishna Moorthy, CEO and President, India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA).

India will require an additional pool of at least 20 lakh deep tech engineers by 2030 to meet its growth aspirations for the semiconductor and electronic design manufacturing sectors, said K. Krishna Moorthy, CEO and President, India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA).

“The number one challenge in front of us is not around investments, land or electricity, but lack of high-quality talent with deep tech expertise. We will be able to meet our growth targets for the electronics and semiconductor sector only if we address this serious issue of talent on a war footing,” he told The Hindu.

These 20 lakh deep tech engineers should come from diverse disciplines including chemical, mechanical, electrical, electronics, automobile and would also include material scientists, battery technologists, environment scientists, AI & ML experts, fintech experts and cyber security experts. Of these, the requirement for electronic engineers alone would be over 2 lakh by 2030, he said.

“It is good to know that the semiconductor and electronics segment will open up opportunities worth several billions of dollars. And this growth opportunity is real. However, without having enough quality talent, we are not going to benefit,” he cautioned.

IESA is in talks with academic institutions, industry players and the government to work on various initiatives towards the development of high quality talent through enhancing syllabus and faculty training. “All stakeholders have realised the immediacy and urgency of the need. What is now required is a concerted and conscious focus to translate all talent goals into action,’‘ Mr. Moorthy added.

Giving an account of the employability of electronic engineering graduates in the country, he said, the country produced 5.5 lakh electronic engineers. Some 10% of these graduate with first class and 50% of these are readily employable, which means that of the 5.5 lakh graduates only 5,000 are readily employable.

“We have to have 25,000 readily employable electronic engineers in a year and that is our current requirement,” Mr. Moorthy further added.