Industry calls for manufacturing skilling

Indian industry groups and government officials are pushing skilling toward factories, not just back-office work, as India expands electronics, battery and semiconductor manufacturing. (ism.gov.in) The shift is tied to new industrial policy. India Semiconductor Mission says its next phase will back equipment, materials, supply chains, research and training centres, while the semicon program keeps a ₹76,000 crore outlay for chip and display manufacturing. (ism.gov.in; business-standard.com) Electronics and Information Technology Ministry schemes now span electronics clusters, components and a long-running program for skill development in electronics system design and manufacturing, or ESDM. The ministry says the goal is a full ecosystem from design to manufacturing, not assembly alone. (meity.gov.in; meity.gov.in) That matters in 2026 because India is moving from software-heavy growth into sectors that need technicians on factory floors, tool operators, process engineers and packaging specialists. India Semiconductor Mission says approved projects now cover fabrication, assembly, test and packaging, and the government inaugurated Micron’s assembly, test and packaging facility in Sanand on February 28, 2026. (ism.gov.in; ism.gov.in) Batteries are part of the same workforce problem. The Heavy Industries Ministry’s advanced chemistry cell program is designed to build giga-scale battery plants with higher domestic value addition, which requires trained workers in cell production, quality control, safety and materials handling. (heavyindustries.gov.in) Officials have been saying openly that skilling is now a constraint. At The Hindu Deep Tech Summit on April 6, 2026, India Semiconductor Mission chief executive Amitesh Kumar Sinha said the mission’s second phase would expand beyond the first round to include research, equipment manufacturing and skilling. (thehindu.com) Industry has been making the same case. At a December 2025 summit covered by Moneycontrol, India Electronics and Semiconductor Association president Ashok Chandak said the global chip sector could face a shortage of at least 700,000 workers by 2030 across design, manufacturing and other functions. (moneycontrol.com) The government is already trying to build that pipeline through university programs. Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in March 2026 that India had made major progress toward a 10-year target of training 85,000 semiconductor engineers under the Chips to Startup initiative. (economictimes.indiatimes.com; ism.gov.in) The broader economic backdrop helps explain the urgency. India’s statistics ministry released first advance estimates for 2025-26 and continues to show an economy where services dominate output, while electronics policy is being used to pull more value into manufacturing supply chains. (mospi.gov.in; mospi.gov.in) The argument from industry is straightforward: if India wants chip plants, battery lines and component factories to scale, it needs far more people trained to run them. The policy money is increasingly in place; the harder part is building the workforce fast enough. (ism.gov.in; meity.gov.in)