India’s semiconductor equipment industry has called for stronger government incentives for research and development, local production of tools and components, and faster commercialisation of intellectual property to reduce dependence on overseas supply chains.
The proposals were made by Kunal Singh Bisht, manager for equipment development at KAS Technologies, during SEMICON India 2026. Bisht said semiconductor equipment makers needed dedicated support to develop tools, subsystems and components in India so that fabrication plants could rely more on domestic suppliers.
“There are certain actions that can be further supported by the government like there should be more equipment R&D incentives that should be executed,” Bisht said, according to Business Standard.
He also called for greater support for the full journey from intellectual property creation to commercial deployment. This would include stronger industry adoption of academic IP and government assistance for developing prototypes, he said.
“There should be more incentives actually when it comes to making the IP, realizing the IP and converting into more of a commercial outcome,” Bisht said. His remarks place equipment development and technology transfer alongside chip fabrication as important parts of the domestic semiconductor ecosystem.
The need for local capability extends beyond manufacturing equipment. Yoshida Yoshida, director and chairperson of the board at Japanese semiconductor test equipment maker Advantest Corporation, said the company operates two research and development facilities in India and supports more than 30 customers in the country.
“Two fully functional R&D facilities for hardware and software with experienced test and application engineers are supporting more than 30 customers in India,” Yoshida said. The statement points to the presence of both engineering facilities and customer-support operations within India’s expanding semiconductor ecosystem.
Training capacity is also being developed. Takatoshi Kyo, president of Disco Hi-Tec (Singapore) Pte Ltd, said the Japanese semiconductor equipment manufacturer had established a training centre in Gujarat. The company has supplied products to India since the 1990s and has increased its commitment to the Indian market over the last two years, he said.
“Together with this training center, we were able to contribute to the training education for the new engineer for the future India semiconductor ecosystem,” Kyo said.
The comments at SEMICON India 2026 highlight three areas being sought by equipment makers: incentives for domestic R&D, mechanisms to convert academic and industrial IP into commercial products, and training facilities for semiconductor engineers. The executives did not specify the size or structure of the incentives sought. The next step will depend on how the government responds to these requests and whether dedicated support measures are announced for equipment, subsystems, components, prototypes and workforce development.
