India now has a “once-in-a-generation demand window” in the semiconductor segment and must capitalise on the massive opportunity to progress from “engineered in India” to “invent in India,” said Vikram Meghal, senior vice president of engineering at Infosys. Speaking at Semicon India conclave in New Delhi, he said  innovation in the chip ecosystem is where the maximum value lies.

“AI data centre spend is projected to reach $6.7 trillion in the next few years, and 50% of that spend is going to be compute, memory, and networking chips,” Meghal said, adding that India could fill the gap globally in the value chain due to increasing geopolitical turbulence and a booming demand environment.

Additionally, AI is easing the chip development process, which India stands to leverage at this time. “This is allowing us to crunch the chip-to-fab time frame in a big way, and also allowing us to re-imagine the manufacturing process and re-engineer the entire life cycle,” he said.

Meghal marked out three main areas of demand in the country — made for India, engineered in India and invent in India. As the country’s engineering research and development (ER&D) investments are expected to grow by 1.8 times in the near future, there will be a natural expansion in engineering capabilities.

“So far, we have just been capturing the engineered-in-India value. Now, there is a potential for global products to capture the innovation value and start looking at inventing in India itself. That’s really where we will do justice to the decades of investment that we have done in building this ecosystem,” he said.

The country is primed to nab this chance considering 20% of all engineering talent resides in India.

“A decade-long investment efforts in India has already enabled us to begin manufacturing certain components here. The next step is to conceptualise and build products indigenously,” Meghal stated.

To make this shift, the country will have to encourage a “broader product mindset,” which requires moving beyond chips to whole systems. For this, the shift would have to include a product strategy, appropriate regulatory compliance, and the ability to drive product monetisation.

The market for global product development is widening globally and expected to grow from $67 billion to $200 billion.