Hardware
Skyworth Digital appoints new vice president to lead expansion
MUMBAI: After steering Skyworth Digital’s India operations for seven years, Jayaprakash Thulasiraman has been tapped to lead the company’s new business strategy as vice president. The television and broadband equipment maker announced the appointment on LinkedIn, where it outlined the veteran’s remit: emerging business incubation, strategic partnerships, government affairs and “special assignments that call for experience, insight—and a spark of bold thinking”.
Thulasiraman brings three decades of experience from technology and telecommunications heavyweights including Reliance, Vodafone, Motorola and Huawei. During his tenure as Skyworth’s general manager for India, the firm secured a coveted position among Tata Play’s top three partners in 2025.
The appointment comes as Skyworth seeks to shore up its position in the broadband-focused digital television market. Under Thulasiraman’s leadership as country manager, the firm expanded its portfolio beyond traditional set-top boxes to include broadband customer premise equipment and fixed wireless access devices—a strategic pivot to capture the growing convergence of television and internet services.
Before joining Skyworth in 2018, Thulasiraman held leadership roles at Optiva, Amdocs and Huawei, where he managed accounts for major Indian telecoms. Earlier in his career, he oversaw Vodafone India’s terminal business, orchestrating the first official iPhone launch in the country in 2007.
Hardware
India clears Rs 1.6 lakh crore semiconductor projects under Semicon India
Ten projects cleared as production begins and design ecosystem gathers pace
NEW DELHI: India’s push to become a global electronics powerhouse is gaining momentum, with the Semicon India Programme driving the creation of a full-fledged semiconductor ecosystem from design to manufacturing.
Launched in 2022, the programme aims to build capabilities across the entire value chain, including chip design, fabrication, assembly, testing and packaging. In just four years, the government has approved 10 semiconductor projects with a combined investment commitment of around Rs 1.6 lakh crore.
Two of these facilities have already begun commercial production, including units led by Micron Technology Inc. and Kaynes Technology India Limited. Two more plants are expected to go live later this year, signalling that India’s chip ambitions are moving from blueprint to factory floor.
The broader electronics manufacturing story has also seen sharp growth over the past decade. Production has jumped from roughly Rs 1.9 lakh crore in 2014-15 to about Rs 12 lakh crore in 2024-25, while exports have surged nearly eightfold. Mobile phone manufacturing, once heavily import-dependent, now meets almost all domestic demand and has become a major export driver.
Alongside manufacturing, the government is investing heavily in design capabilities. Through access to advanced chip design tools provided free to 315 universities, students and researchers have clocked over 200 lakh hours of usage. This effort has already resulted in 211 chip tape-outs from 75 institutions.
Support for startups is also picking up pace. Twenty-four chip design projects have been approved, targeting sectors such as surveillance, energy, communications and IoT. Of these, 14 companies have collectively raised over Rs 650 crore in venture funding, while several designs have progressed to fabrication, including at advanced nodes.
To strengthen supply chains, India has also signed semiconductor cooperation agreements with countries including the United States, Japan, the European Union, Singapore and the Netherlands. These partnerships aim to reduce global dependencies while boosting domestic capabilities.
The employment impact is equally significant. The electronics sector now supports an estimated 25 lakh jobs, with mobile manufacturing alone accounting for nearly half. As more semiconductor units come online under the India Semiconductor Mission, indirect job creation across supply chains is expected to rise further.
Sharing these updates in Parliament, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology minister of state Jitin Prasada underscored the government’s focus on building a resilient, end-to-end semiconductor ecosystem.
With factories taking shape, designs moving to silicon and investments flowing in, India’s semiconductor story is steadily shifting gears from ambition to execution.
