India, Sept. 11 -- India's semiconductor opportunity has moved past the question of whether the country can attract fabs. The more consequential question, and the one that will determine whether this moment becomes a lasting industrial transformation, is whether India can build the human depth to make those fabs productive, innovative and globally competitive.

NITI Aayog's 2026 roadmap targets a $120-150 billion semiconductor value chain by 2035, spanning mature-node manufacturing, advanced packaging, compound semiconductors and design. That is an ambitious architecture. But infrastructure without people is just real estate. The workforce capable of running, improving and innovating within that ecosystem needs to be built in parallel, no...