Posts

The REAL Challenge for India's Semiconductor Industry

As India ramps up its efforts to become a global semiconductor manufacturing hub, one of the most critical challenges it faces is building a skilled workforce that can support this rapidly growing industry. People may think India already has a huge work-force, but the key issue they ignore is that almost none of the workers have any experience in this industry, as it simply did not exist in India before now. (With sole exception of the government-run Semi-Conductor Laboratory in Mohali, but it is now under the Department of Space).  There are many  websites  who seem to be tracking the various projects initiated and planned for this mushrooming industry in India.  I also try to do it on my  site , but it is limited to the final approved projects. The demand for specialized talent in semiconductor design, fabrication, and testing is enormous, and meeting these demands will require significant reforms in education and workforce development. Key Challenges in Secur...
Post a Comment
Read more

NIRF (or the National Institutional Ranking Framework) for the Uninitiated

Image
So, the NIRF 2020 was released in June and the usual chest-beating and we-are-better-than-you took place. But we are all aware that the history is littered with university ranking schemes, some notorious for providing rank-for-money. The then Director of IIT Kanpur famously made the statement in 2013: “An amount of one lakh and fifty thousand dollars needs to be paid to get a good ranking in such lists”, when his institute was ranked 295 by the ‘QS World University Rankings’. It was argued by QS that the Director was confused with their ‘Star program’ (where a “5 Star Rating” is put next to the University rank after receiving a payment), but the damage was done in India. Their latest rankings put IIT Bombay as the highest rank at 162 for an Indian institute while IIT Kanpur is at 283. ( Side note: the “Institute ranking” page on IIT Kanpur’s official website still carries QS World University Rankings as it is the highest when you look at all the different international rankings.) A ...
Post a Comment
Read more