Nvidia and the government of India are currently discussing a proposal to develop a chip jointly, following a proposal from Nvidia. It is because of the stupendous semiconductor design talent that India possesses, ET reports.  

The Proposal
The proposal was made by the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, during a meeting with the Prime Minister of India as they met earlier this year. It has been further corroborated by the Union Minister for Electronics, Mr Ashwini Vaishnaw, who told ET, “Yes, we are discussing with Nvidia the development of an AI chip; discussions are at a preliminary stage.”

Status 
ET reports, “The government is currently thrashing out the details such as costing, benefits, use cases of such a co-developed chip,” one of the officers concerned with the matter said.  

Why India?  
Nvidia has made the proposal owing to the huge semiconductor design talent that India has, making it 2nd in the world only after Germany coupled with the PM’s vision to ensure a self-reliant nation that doesn't supply raw materials to import value-added goods. 

“He (Modi) said to me, Jensen, India should not export flour to import bread. This makes perfect sense. Why export the raw material to import the value add? Why  export the data of India, so that you can import AI?” Huang said, recalling the meeting. 

India’s Contribution  
If all goes well, Nvidia’s chip design partners Arm or AMd will be designing the core chip while the top customizable layer going up to 10-205 can be designed either by the government-owned Centre for Development of  Advanced Computing (C-DAC) or some private entity. Such an effort aims at utilizing the large talent pool of chip designers in India. 

Potential Use Cases 
The co-developed chip can be used in various systems designed and operationalized by the government of India, for instance, the Kavach system.  Additionally, the chip will likely be used by other agencies and private bodies too if it is made available under the AI mission. 

It can pave the way for an indigenously developed chip as the semiconductor & AI boom consumes the world at large. 

Experts’ Opinion 
Experts look at the opportunity as a golden chance for India to capitalize on the resources already available and to make an end-to-end product with the talent pool available in the country. Additionally, they also indicate an era of AI-enabled innovation to gain robust ground in India as these indigenously developed chips would be cost-effective for startups and local companies. 

Conclusively, the opinions suggest that a semiconductor era can be enabled in India further paving the way for more indigenous innovations in IOT and AI. 

India’s Talent Pool  
According to a recent study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), 19% of the world’s chip designers are based in India.

Prospects
As a new era characterized by IOTs and AI welcomes us warmingly, it's obvious for us to realize the potential of the human resources we have and strategize it accordingly to make the most of it. India must get its route charted to lead the race of AI and IoT with so much of the talent pool available at its disposal.