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Chip design and AI-driven engineering emerge as niche growth bets for IT sector

Chip design and AI-driven engineering emerge as niche growth bets for IT sector

by | Nov 16, 2025 | Science


Semiconductor tools generate a vast amount of data, which can be leveraged to build efficient machine learning and AI-based predictive maintenance systems that help reduce tool downtime and improve overall fab yield
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India’s IT services leaders are ramping up their semiconductor design and AI-driven engineering capabilities as global chipmakers deepen their presence in the country. While analysts expect this to remain a specialised niche — centred on chip design, verification and fab-level AI systems rather than a cloud- or AI-scale breakout — the segment is steadily expanding and poised for much larger growth.

Semiconductors are the foundation of modern technology, from AI and cloud to automotive and industrial automation. Global chip shortages and the surge in demand for advanced electronics have created a strategic inflection point.

Gilroy Mathew, COO of UST, shared that semiconductors represent one of its fastest-growing verticals, alongside healthcare and the BFSI sector.

“This segment is projected to deliver double-digit growth within our ER&D portfolio over the next five years. We have been a pioneer in the semiconductor business for the last 15 years. As of today, we have a dedicated 10,000-member team serving 15 out of the top 20 semiconductor companies globally; it provides world-class engineering solutions to our clients on R&D, Hardware, Software, and ATE,” he noted.

Expertise

Globally, the company serves semiconductor companies, with expertise in design, verification and embedded systems. Domestically, India’s semiconductor mission and PLI/DLI schemes have opened new opportunities for the company, he said.

“Our recent ₹3,330 crore OSAT joint venture with Kaynes Semicon in Gujarat is aimed at strengthening India’s semiconductor value chain. This partnership enables us to provide a full ATE solution to our global clients, including OSAT. We are providing an alternative back-end manufacturing option to our clients. UST is building end-to-end capabilities, including pre-silicon design (ASIC, FPGA, SoC architecture), post silicon validation, advanced EDA automation and manufacturing process support through OSAT partnerships,” Mathew explained.

Alongside, semiconductor tools generate a vast amount of data, which can be leveraged to build efficient machine learning and AI-based predictive maintenance systems that help reduce tool downtime and improve overall fab yield.

Omprakash Subbarao, CEO at IISc’s FSID CORE Labs, highlighted that AI-driven defect inspection during wafer production and packaging will further enhance yield, benefiting both individual tools and the fab as a whole. The development of advanced digital twins of both tools and fabs will support better training for fab engineers and enable real-time remote monitoring of processes and equipment.

“This space is set to become a much larger market, and its growth is already well underway. A growing number of companies are now focusing on advanced tool development, moving beyond purely service-oriented work. Start-ups mentored by established tool makers, fabs, and VLSI design houses can accelerate innovation and strengthen the overall ecosystem far more effectively,” he said.

ISM is building a semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem that includes production, assembly, packaging, and testing at scale, which will create opportunities for IT services in enabling smart manufacturing, digital transformation and automation across semiconductor fabs and OSAT facilities. With advanced machinery, robotics, and AI-driven workflows becoming integral to these setups, technology will play a critical role in optimising operations, ensuring quality, and driving efficiency.

Biswajeet Mahapatra, Principal Analyst, Forrester, explained that while India’s IT services firms are unlikely to gain a broad competitive edge across the semiconductor value chain because core manufacturing and fabrication remain capital-intensive and dominated by global giants. However, they can carve out a niche in design, verification, and software-driven aspects of chip development, leveraging their engineering talent and experience in complex systems integration. This will likely remain a specialised play rather than a mainstream focus.

“While semiconductor design and engineering could emerge as a meaningful growth vertical, it will not match the scale of cloud or AI in the near term. The opportunity lies in high-value design services, embedded software, and verification, driven by global demand for advanced chips in AI, automotive, and IoT. Growth will depend on partnerships with semiconductor firms and building domain expertise, making it more of an adjacent vertical than a dominant pillar,” he said.

Revenue potential will be modest compared to cloud or AI, likely in the low single-digit percentage of overall IT services revenue over the next 3–5 years. For large players, this could translate into hundreds of millions of dollars rather than billions, driven by specialized design and verification projects for global semiconductor clients.

Published on November 16, 2025



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Millennia-old micro zombies

Millennia-old micro zombies

by | Oct 20, 2025 | Science


What lies beneath… permafrost
| Photo Credit:
Adrian Wojcik

What is ‘death’? Is it just the freezing of ‘life’ chemicals into seemingly eternal immobility, but which can be warmed back to life? What is ‘life’ indeed? Is it something that can be shelved — and de-shelved? These questions — and more — swirl around in the liminal space between science and philosophy.

We are used to believing that death is a permanent state, but that comes into question when you learn that some scientists, acting on a crazy idea, brought back to life microbes that were trapped in deep ice for 40,000 years.

Inconceivable as his idea may have seemed initially — waking microbes that had been “dead” for forty millennia — Tristan Caro, a postdoctoral research associate in geobiology at Caltech, did succeed in convincing his colleagues to embark on this ‘mission impossible’.

They dug deep into permafrost for the microbes and placed them in heavy water (containing a heavier isotope of hydrogen). Six months on, their patience… and faith… paid off — the microbes came alive and built a flourishing colony.

“These are not dead samples by any means,” says Caro, in a statement issued by the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he earlier graduated in geological sciences. “They’re still very much capable of hosting robust life that can break down organic matter and release it as carbon dioxide.”

Caro has just scratched the surface — literally. “There’s so much permafrost in the world — in Alaska, Siberia and in other northern cold regions,” he says. “We’ve only sampled one tiny slice of that.” There is also a hidden warning to the world. These zombies, woken up by a warming world, might wreak havoc on the environment, accentuating climate change.

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Published on October 20, 2025



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How robotic cancer surgery aids recovery

How robotic cancer surgery aids recovery

by | Oct 20, 2025 | Science


Advanced robotic surgery allows for faster recovery for patients in cancer treatment, even as it helps cut overall healthcare costs.

Conventional surgery often results in substantial physical trauma, while robotic methods help minimise this trauma. “This helps reduce the body’s stress response and quickens recovery,” says Dr Venkat P, a member of the Veritas Cancer Care team who is also associated with Apollo Cancer Centre.

For example, conventional open surgery for colorectal cancers typically requires hospital stay of 7-9 days, followed by about a month of recovery at home. Robotic surgery reduces this to just two days in hospital and about one week at home, according to the Veritas Cancer Care team, led by Dr Venkat and Dr Priya Kapoor.

Here’s how it works: robotic surgery requires the surgeon to manoeuvre the instruments from a console that is at a distance from the patient.

Dr Venkat says the team pioneered the robotic nipple-sparing mastectomy in the country in November 2023. It has 58 cases under its belt, he says, among the highest across the country. This is an important option for young patients anxious to retain an aesthetic appearance after surgery. Using robotics to remove muscle and skin from the patient’s back for breast reconstruction results in smaller scars, reduced tissue trauma and faster recovery.

The team also performed the first robotic cytoreductive surgery for complex ovarian cancers. Combined with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy or HIPEC, the procedure helps significantly improve outcomes. HIPEC is a surgical procedure in which heated chemotherapy drugs are directly circulated into the abdominal cavity after cancer tumours have been surgically removed.

This treatment is used for advanced abdominal cancers like those in the appendix, colon, stomach, and ovaries, as the heat increases the drugs’ ability to penetrate cancer cells while reducing side effects.

The team also conducted Tamil Nadu’s first robotic surgery for thyroid cancers. Dr Venkat explains that there is no scar in the neck, and only a small keyhole scar in the underarm for improved cosmetic appeal.

The Veritas team has also conducted complex ‘Whipple surgeries’ using robotic methods. The Whipple technique is a complex surgery for pancreatic cancer involving the removal and reconnection of the pancreas, stomach, and bile duct. Dr Kapoor says, “We have performed at least 28 Whipple surgeries.”

But doesn’t robotics involve high investment, thereby raising the overall costs for the patient? Dr Kapoor agrees but points out that “shorter hospital stays and lower risk of complications, such as wound infections, help lower the need for expensive post-operative care and medicines. For patients who are working, returning to their workplaces earlier adds to the long-term benefit. Likewise, for those who travel to a different city for the surgery, shorter hospital stays brings down associated expenses.

But not all cancers can be removed using robotic methods. ‘Surgical selection’ remains paramount, she emphasises. Keyhole surgery cannot help in the case of complex, large tumours (for instance, an ovarian mass measuring 30 cm). As the tumour must be removed whole in such cases, too, a large incision may be needed, whether or not robotic methods are used.

Robotic ‘telesurgery’?

Telesurgery, or remote robotic surgery — where the surgeon operates from a distance — is possible and has been demonstrated through trans-Atlantic cardiac surgeries several years ago. However, says Dr Kapoor, it’s not a regular feature in complex cancer surgeries as it would need two equally skilled surgical teams at both ends, as well as extensive engineering support. This is critical in case the telecom signal is lost mid-surgery or if there is some malfunction in the robotic platform.

She also points to ethical issues surrounding such an operation where the surgeon is not present in the same location as the patient. She says the most practical and ethical application of telesurgery is in the training and mentoring of other robotic surgeons — where the mentee surgeon performs a surgery, while the mentor monitors and guides from another location.

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Published on October 20, 2025



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Traffic forecasts suited to Indian roads and vehicle types

Traffic forecasts suited to Indian roads and vehicle types

by | Oct 20, 2025 | Science


Traffic predictions can help public transport authorities in scheduling or rerouting buses
| Photo Credit:
Travel Wild

Ask Associate Professor Bhargava Rama Chilukuri why he chose to do research on traffic speeds, and he will tell you: “Drawing an average from a given data set does not actually represent any part of that dataset. Traditionally, traffic velocity has been estimated for one class of vehicles, say, cars. Those findings have then been extrapolated to other vehicles — such as trucks (half as fast as cars), bikes (1.25 times faster), etc. That doesn’t lend a lot of accuracy.”

He and his colleague Abirami Krishna Ashok, at the Civil Engineering Department of IIT-Madras, have come up with a framework for characterising and predicting traffic states under different traffic conditions. “This is important for a country like India as we have different vehicle types depending on the purchasing capacity of individuals. In the US, far more families own cars than in India, so a homogenous model is fine,” Chilukuri says.

Converting all vehicles into ‘passenger car equivalency’ units, resulting in a single-state variable, worked well in the Western economies that came up with these models. Metrics that work for the US do not adequately represent class-wise behaviours in India.

Chilukuri says, “Our framework identifies unique speed patterns for each class of vehicle — whether it’s a two-wheeler or a heavy truck — making it possible to deliver much more accurate class-wise traffic forecasts and smarter, data-driven interventions to alleviate congestion and enhance safety.”

The findings of the research were published in a paper last year in the IEEE Access journal.

The exercise collected travel time data, often sourced from sensors. This raw data is ‘class-agnostic’, meaning the travel-time records do not identify the vehicle class — whether car, truck or bike. The data is aggregated into five-minute periods and cover a range of speeds from 5 kmph to 65 kmph.

Traffic states

In a video interview with businessline, the researchers said they used learning algorithms to cluster the data to identify the most frequently occurring traffic states. The study defined 50 traffic states.

To order these states from ‘freely flowing’ to ‘congested’, the researchers used the concept of ‘area occupancy’ (AO) — these are values calculated for each defined state, considering five predominant vehicle classes: two-wheeler (2W), three-wheeler (3W), car (CAR), light commercial vehicle (LCV), and heavy vehicle (HV).

States are then ordered in the ascending order, with State 1 denoting free-flow (lowest AO) and State 50 denoting highly congested (highest AO). This process allows for the estimation of class-wise speeds. The framework defines speeds based on the speed dynamism exhibited by vehicle classes, generally following the order of 2W, 3W, CAR, LCV, and HV.

The researchers’ model aims to predict traffic states using state information from prior records and pattern probabilities, which are fed by daily observations, such as peak or off-peak hour traffic.

The traffic state predictions are subsequently mapped back to vehicle class-wise speeds. The researchers say this approach showed advantages against existing methods in performance and efficiency.

Chilukuri says the prediction results showed that the proposed approach preserves the order, or ranking, of class-wise speeds better than the traditional approach. For the test dataset, the joint model retained the correct rank for all five vehicle classes in 58 per cent of observations, compared to 46 per cent in the traditional model.

Ashok points out that the predictions can help public transport authorities in scheduling or rerouting buses. Likewise, logistics firms can help their fleet perform more efficiently. The model, the researchers say, can serve as the foundation for systems suited to future traffic conditions, which will likely see a mix of human-driven, autonomous and electric vehicles.

The next step, says Chilukuri, is for the institute to engage with the technology industry, ideally digital mapmakers, to use the proposed model for more accurate estimations of traffic speed, flow and density.

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Published on October 20, 2025



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