ISM CEO: ISM 2.0 Will Broaden Eligibility and Enhance Incentives — Announcement Imminent
ISM CEO Amitesh Kumar Sinha confirmed on July 8 that ISM 2.0 will broaden eligibility criteria and enhance incentives for chip design startups and the broader ecosystem — and that the announcement is imminent after completing the finalisation process.
At an online event on July 8, 2026, India Semiconductor Mission CEO Amitesh Kumar Sinha gave the clearest public statement yet on ISM 2.0's policy direction: the revised programme will "broaden the eligibility criteria and enhance the incentive system" with particular focus on chip design startups, material producers, and research and talent development.
Sinha's framing of ISM 2.0 is notable for what it emphasises. ISM 1.0 was "a race to manufacture factories." ISM 2.0 is described as "a comprehensive blueprint for developing a silicon economy" — covering each link in the chip value chain rather than only the most capital-intensive anchor facilities. The statement came 7 days after the EFC cleared the ₹1.25 lakh crore outlay, making the "imminent" characterisation credible rather than aspirational.
Sinha specifically cited: chip design startups (improved DLI incentives), material producers (chemicals, gases, specialty materials), and research and talent development (the ₹1,000 crore training centre provision). He described domestic supply chain resilience as the "protection against global disruption" that the scheme is designed to create.
The ISM CEO's public statement "announcement imminent" is the clearest signal yet that the Cabinet approval timeline is short. Combined with the EFC clearance on July 1, this puts the ISM 2.0 launch window firmly in the August–September 2026 range — consistent with an announcement at or around Semicon India 2026 (September 17–19). The broadened eligibility Sinha describes explicitly includes institutions and training centres as ecosystem players, not just manufacturing companies. The phrase "each and every link of the chip value chain" is the ISM CEO saying, in plain terms, that the training centre funding is part of the core programme — not an afterthought. Institutions that take this seriously in July will be positioned to apply in October. Those that take it seriously in October will be applying into a scheme that's already partially allocated.