Quest International plans a tenfold growth in its semiconductor workforce, rising from 2000 to twenty,000, as India’s semiconductor business accelerates. Taher Madraswala from Quest International shares the corporate’s hiring technique and expertise retention challenges with EFY’s Yashasvini Razdan.
Q. You took a threat very early in your profession with Open-Silicon. How was the ecosystem again then in comparison with at present by way of funding, authorities assist, and different sources?
A. We began Open-Silicon in 2003—21 years in the past. Our funding got here from the USA, as we have been a US-based firm based by a staff with expertise at Intel and a confirmed observe report. American enterprise capitalists (VCs) trusted us and offered funding, permitting us to develop application-specific built-in circuits (ASICs) for our prospects. Whereas the design was primarily carried out in India, different elements, equivalent to fabrication, meeting, and testing, have been dealt with by Open-Silicon workers within the US.
At the moment, authorities assist in India was minimal. At this time, the federal government has launched initiatives that present startups with free entry to instruments for a restricted interval, tax advantages, and different incentives. Whereas some tax advantages existed earlier, they’re extra structured now. We established our design staff in India as a result of we have been aware of the expertise pool and wished to contribute to the nation’s development. We had groups within the US, Japan, and different areas, however India remained the core design hub.
Q. With Quest International’s semiconductor division, do you propose to repeat historical past?
A. Completely—that’s the plan. Nevertheless, this time, it should be finished at a a lot bigger scale and inside a shorter timeframe.
At present, 2000 college students are being educated, and all of the expertise and studying from the previous shall be leveraged. Quest International has formidable targets. The corporate has grown from a small staff to twenty,000 workers in 27 years. Now, we purpose to scale as much as 50,000 and finally 100,000 workers. Semiconductors shall be a central a part of our development technique.
Q. What are the important thing challenges of working a semiconductor design home in India?
A. The problem in India is retaining expertise. Engineers are extremely formidable and consistently search new challenges. Whereas monetary incentives matter at first of their careers, over time, the joy of engaged on new applied sciences turns into extra essential. If you happen to can repeatedly stimulate an engineer’s mental curiosity—providing alternatives to work on new tasks throughout totally different domains equivalent to cameras, aeroplanes, smartphones, and information centres—they’re extra more likely to keep. The bottom line is to offer significant work that retains pushing the frontiers of their information.
Q. What differentiates Quest International from different semiconductor product design corporations?
A. Quest International focuses on a choose variety of prospects however builds long-term relationships with them. Not like different corporations which may diversify into IT, enterprise course of outsourcing (BPO), or fintech, we stay a pure engineering firm. Our focus is solely on fixing engineering challenges throughout numerous sectors, equivalent to aerospace, defence, railways, and semiconductors. We obtain this by our customer-centric digital enterprise models (VBU) which can be run by strategic consumer companions who’re empowered to make selections that profit our prospects. These VBUs rent, practice and retain vital expertise internationally to serve our buyer’s native and world wants.
Inside semiconductors, we’ve got constructed a devoted staff to handle our buyer’s wants to offer a silicon to system to cloud options. As a substitute of spreading ourselves skinny throughout quite a few shoppers, we prioritise delivering high-value options to some key prospects
Q. Inside semiconductors and electronics, who’re Quest International’s goal prospects in India?
A. Our main prospects are giant multinational companies (MNCs) as a result of they’re vital outsourcers because of their scale. Our technique is to work with the highest 10 corporations in each business. Our method is to have interaction deeply with these main corporations and supply them with complete assist fairly than making an attempt to cater to an enormous variety of shoppers.
That being stated, we’re dedicated to supporting India’s product ecosystem. If a startup in India is creating a semiconductor product, we’ll take into account collaborating with them, even when they don’t seem to be among the many prime 10 gamers. Our objective is to contribute to India’s emergence as a product-driven market.
Q. What position will Quest International’s Indian design staff play in your development plans? Will they develop mental property (IP)? If sure, will it’s particularly for India or for world markets as effectively?
A. Our mission is to transcend the service-based mannequin that India has adopted for the previous twenty years. As a substitute of merely executing designs based mostly on blueprints offered by others, we purpose so as to add worth by creating subsystems equivalent to IPs, for India and the world. For instance, we’re working with a number of prospects in creating chiplets and customized silicon options, to permit startups/corporations in India or wherever on the earth to give attention to platform-level innovation fairly than worrying about how the chip itself is designed and manufactured.
Q. How do you propose to broaden Quest International’s attain? What sort of partnerships do you envision with academia, business, and startups?
A. Working with academia is at all times thrilling. College students deliver a recent perspective and enthusiasm to real-world tasks, and such collaborations enable us to develop a powerful analysis and growth (R&D) base. Now we have established partnerships with universities, together with IIT Madras.
Aside from universities, we additionally work intently with instrument suppliers and devoted manufacturing models. Semiconductor manufacturing requires a number of phases, together with packaging, dicing, and testing. Our method is to assist and encourage Indian corporations in these areas, even when they’re within the early phases of development or generally compete with us on sure applications.
Q. How do Quest International’s partnerships in India evaluate with its world collaborations? What sort of world partnerships do you’ve got, and the way do they contribute to the Indian semiconductor ecosystem?
A. From a buyer perspective, we’ve got robust relationships with a number of main corporations, significantly within the Bay Space. Nevertheless, semiconductor growth is not only about design—it additionally entails a number of parts equivalent to design instruments, packaging options, and wafer fabrication. Now we have established agreements with key world gamers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Firm (TSMC) and others, permitting us to leverage their fabrication amenities. From a design perspective, we’re a most popular accomplice for corporations like NVIDIA. Moreover, we’ve got long-term collaborations with Japanese corporations like Renesas. We work as a premier accomplice with many of those organisations, collectively creating merchandise, proof-of-concept demonstrations, and prototype options.
Q. May you give an outline of Quest International’s infrastructure in India by way of expertise and capital expenditure (CAPEX)?
A. Our two principal design centres in India are positioned in Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram. The one at Thiruvananthapuram is primarily centered on software program growth, with a devoted constructing housing 3500 workers. The Bengaluru centre has over 7000 workers, and we’re repeatedly increasing.
We even have offshore design centres, the place total flooring are devoted to particular prospects. These centres function in safe environments, guaranteeing confidentiality in semiconductor design tasks. Past these, we even have a rising presence in Hyderabad and are exploring alternatives in different cities.
Q. What sort of expertise do you rent for these design centres? You talked about having over 4000-5000 workers. The place do you supply your engineers from?
A. Within the semiconductor division, most of our hiring is concentrated in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, as these cities have robust expertise swimming pools and entice engineers searching for profession development. Nevertheless, we’re additionally increasing into tier-2 cities equivalent to Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, and Delhi NCR. Mumbai and Pune are additionally on our radar for future development.
Q. How do you upskill or re-skill your workers, given the speedy evolution of semiconductor know-how?
A. Upskilling is crucial, and we take a structured method to steady studying. Many corporations have inner coaching programmes, and we observe the same mannequin with our personal idea of ‘Silicon Academy’. We additionally present specialised coaching tailor-made to our prospects’ methodologies. Totally different corporations——have distinctive approaches to chip design. Our engineers bear devoted coaching to know and undertake every consumer’s particular strategies.
We additionally present domain-focused studying. For instance, synthetic intelligence (AI) is a quickly rising subject, however totally different corporations method AI otherwise. To make sure our engineers are well-equipped, we provide devoted coaching programmes equivalent to, Microsoft AI College for Microsoft-specific AI purposes, Google AI College for Google’s AI methodologies and Alibaba AI Coaching for AI developments in China.
Q. Are you planning to broaden your hiring methods? How do you attain out to potential candidates and allow them to know you’re hiring?
A. Sure, we’re consistently evolving our hiring method. Now we have an inner expertise acquisition staff that manages recruitment, and we’ve got refined our hiring course of to transcend fundamental theoretical assessments. As a substitute of simply testing engineers on textbook information, we now give attention to sensible problem-solving expertise and search for engineers who can visualise the real-world purposes of their work and apply their tutorial studying successfully. Our hiring methods are segmented based mostly on totally different enterprise verticals. We additionally collaborate with exterior recruitment consultants who assist us attain deeper into the expertise pool.
We actively have interaction with universities to usher in recent graduates. As soon as employed, they undergo an idea of ‘Silicon Academy’, the place they obtain focused coaching in semiconductor design and customer-specific methodologies.
We additionally take part in conferences and business occasions equivalent to VLSI Design Convention, the place we showcase our contributions to main tasks, to draw engineers who’re captivated with particular domains, whether or not it’s AI, cameras, or chip design for automotive purposes.
Q. What position do your shoppers play within the design course of? Do their engineers work along with your staff, or is it the opposite means round?
A. We work in shut collaboration with our prospects. Whereas they don’t essentially deploy engineers at our amenities, they’ve groups that outline the imaginative and prescient and specs of their finish merchandise—whether or not it’s a automotive, a digital camera, or a printer. Quest International interprets these system-level necessities into precise chip designs. Our prospects specify elements like energy consumption, efficiency metrics, and wi-fi communication wants, whereas we deal with the detailed engineering to make sure these necessities are met.
Q. How does Quest International handle the mixing between its {hardware} and software program design groups?
A. We don’t deal with {hardware} and software program as separate entities. As a substitute, we leverage simulation fashions that replicate {hardware} behaviour. Whereas our {hardware} design staff focuses on chip growth, our software program staff concurrently builds fashions that mimic the {hardware}. The latter exams their purposes on a digital mannequin of the chip earlier than it’s bodily fabricated. Since we’re additionally accountable for designing the {hardware}, we are able to summary it at a excessive stage, guaranteeing that the software program runs seamlessly when the precise chip is produced.
Our means to simulate, check, and validate software program earlier than fabrication saves our prospects vital money and time. It ensures that when the chip returns from the foundry, it features accurately on the primary try, stopping expensive rework and bettering time to market.
Q. Do you additionally supply providers for the ultralow-power? Do these designs require a special method?
A. Sure, we do concentrate on ultra-low energy designs. Our experience spans throughout chips that function from as little as a number of milliwatts to tons of of watts.
Extremely-low energy design is essentially totally different from high-power chip design. The strategies, instruments, and libraries used to develop low-power chips are distinct. Excessive-power chips, equivalent to synthetic intelligence (AI) GPUs that eat 400-600 watts, require superior energy supply and thermal administration methods to deal with warmth dissipation. Extremely-low energy chips, utilized in wearables and IoT units, must minimise vitality consumption for prolonged battery life. Methods equivalent to clock gating, energy islands, and low-power libraries are used to attain this.
At Quest International, we tackle each ends of the spectrum, guaranteeing we’ve got the experience and sources to develop chips for numerous purposes.
Q. What plans does Quest International have for its semiconductors division in India?
A. We purpose to scale this enterprise to $1 billion in income over the following six to seven years. This development would require a large growth in hiring. At this time, our semiconductor division has round 2000-2500 workers, however to attain $1 billion in income, we have to scale as much as 20,000 workers—a 10x development.
Most of this growth will occur in India, making the nation a significant hub for semiconductor engineering expertise. As India continues to develop its semiconductor ecosystem, we imagine there shall be large job and studying alternatives for engineers, not simply at Quest International however throughout your entire business.
