‘Hope to break ground for chip plant by Q1 of next yr’

The Indian semiconductor industry is being feted for the speed at which fabrication plants are being set up. One company getting attention is Delhi-based Bharat Semi and its design unit 3rdiTech (pronounced third-eye tech). VRINDA KAPOOR, chief executive officer of 3rdiTech, is the only woman in India to head a semiconductor firm. Kapoor, in a telephonic interview over with Shivani Shinde, spoke about the company. Edited excerpts:

- VRINDA KAPOOR

How did 3rdiTech happen?

We wanted to create something unique in the Indian startup ecosystem, beyond ecommerce and quick commerce. While we (Kapoor and Vinayak Dalmia, 3rdiTech's chief business officer) were thinking and contemplating, we stumbled upon this pocket of brilliance at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, which was working on sensors.

We met Mukul Sarkar, now chief technology officer and cofounder of 3rdiTech, at IIT Delhi. He had studied abroad and returned to India and got into research and development. This is the time when even government research was not focused on such areas. By the time we met him it was 2018-19; he had spent over six-years establishing his lab at IIT Delhi, which was into imaging sensor and semiconductor design.