India's electronics market a 'tiger ready to jump', says NXP CTO
NXP Semiconductors CTO Lars Reger says India's electronics market is poised for take-off as domestic demand for complete systems grows.
India's electronics market is poised for a take-off, with domestic demand for complete electronic systems emerging as a decisive shift, according to Lars Reger, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of NXP Semiconductors.
Speaking on the sidelines of Semicon India 2026, Reger described the market as "a tiger that is ready to jump". India, he said, has been recognised for five decades as a research and development hub, with established strengths in hardware and software development. What is new, he added, is the country's growing appetite for the electronic systems built on that foundation.
Reger said his conversations with Indian leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several union ministers, had been productive. A CEO roundtable held alongside the event focused on creating end-to-end systems that would support a full domestic electronics industry, rather than concentrating only on semiconductor fabrication. He referred to engagements involving the transport and economics ministries as well as the ministry led by Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Global trends are reinforcing that direction, Reger noted, with automation and intelligent devices driving demand for silicon across a widening range of applications. The challenge, he said, lies in deployment: chips must be turned into usable products, which requires training local developers and users.
He pointed to the need to help Indian engineers convert chip designs into functional modules, citing reference designs for applications such as drone control and vehicle-to-vehicle communication. These designs, he said, need to be productised, and the roundtable discussed how suppliers and the domestic market can work together on that front.
Both government and industry, Reger added, are weighing the next steps needed to build a broad base of students, customers and startups. Initiatives such as startup competitions held with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, he said, are aimed at strengthening the local ecosystem.