Mumbai, Aug 18 : Union Railways and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Monday lauded Indian startup Mindgrove Technologies for designing secure Internet of Things (IoT) chips, saying chipsets with our own IP is an important objective in the journey towards 'Viksit Bharat'.

The minister encouraged new startups by sharing Mindgrove's story of securing funding through the government's Design Linked Incentive (DLI) component, which reimburses up to 50 per cent of eligible expenses for Indian firms creating chips.

Vaishnaw took to X social media platform, saying that "Bharat steps up efforts to be a product nation. Chipsets with our own IP is an important objective in this journey."

"Our semiconductor mission has a component ' Design Linked Incentives - DLI - to encourage startups who innovate and design chips. Supported by DLI Scheme and IIT-M expertise, Mindgrove Technologies has designed secure IoT chips. These are designed for CCTV cameras, industry 4.0 applications, and other IoT devices," the minister said.

"This high-performance microcontroller system-on-chip will also enable trusted indigenous solutions for strategic sectors," he added.

Mindgrove Technologies is a startup incubated at IIT-Madras in 2021 that had designed an IoT chip in 2024, that can power smart devices like smartwatches, home appliances, etc.

The government has supported Mindgrove through the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's (MeitY) Design-Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme.

The firm secured Rs 15 crore in funding from the scheme to cover design and production costs for developing a new chip called "Vision SoC", to be used for high performance edge computing and vision processing applications.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his 79th Independence Day address from the Red Fort, said that 'Made-in-India' semiconductor chips will be available in the market by the end of 2025.

The Cabinet has just approved four semiconductor projects worth Rs 4,600 crore. Odisha will receive two new projects, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab will each receive one. After new approvals, there are ten India Semiconductor Mission (ISM)-sanctioned projects in six states.

/IANS