Indore: Centre for Fabless Foundry might come up in the state

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The central government is exploring the possibility of establishing a Centre for Fabless Foundry in the state of Madhya Pradesh, claimed the Indian Institute of Technology Indore.

In this connection, Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat, member of NITI Aayog and former director-general of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and chief scientific adviser to the minister for defence, visited IIT Indore recently.

The central government is considering IIT Indore as a part of this initiative.

Fabless manufacturing involves design of semiconductor chips while outsourcing their fabrication to a semiconductor foundry. Due to the ever-changing global scenario and under the ‘Make in India’ vision, a feasibility to establish an electronics manufacturing cluster in Madhya Pradesh is being assessed. In this context, Saraswat met the faculty members of IIT Indore who are experts in this domain and doing extensive research in this field.

The major focus was on Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) design, fabrication and application. A group of around 20 faculty members from IIT Indore made presentations before Saraswat highlighting their work. As part of the central government’s initiatives, discussions on establishing a research and training hub on semiconductor design and manufacturing at IIT Indore were also held.

Saraswat also assured the members that the research capabilities of IIT Indore would be harnessed and feasibility for establishment of an Electronics Cluster would be explored. He also addressed a gathering of students, faculty and staff and shared his experience. He covered a wide spectrum of science, technology and economic development of the country.

Saraswat said, “All over the world, scientific minds will have to come together and start making use of them for the betterment of society. Society is the beneficiary of science and technology.” He urged the institute to work extensively in the domain for sustainable development in healthcare, defence, AI, life-saving medical application and space technology and so forth.

“I’m happy to see that the research work at IIT Indore has a direct relevance to society”. He advised that, for better research, one should have a scientific and technological perspective, and then keep in mind the ecological, economic and political perspectives.