At SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi, five senior women leaders from global chip manufacturing companies gathered to discuss the conditions necessary for women to reach top positions in the semiconductor industry. The panel discussion titled 'Women Shaping the Electronics and Semiconductor Industry' took place on September 18, 2026, on the second day of the three-day event, and was moderated by Shraddha Sharma, founder and CEO of YourStory and The Bharat Project.
Speakers included Alpa Sood, Country Manager at Teradyne India; Usha Gogineni, Director of Technology Development at Micron; Radhika Viswanathan, Chief Operating Officer at Applied Materials India; Malini Narayanamurthy, President of Renesas India and Vice President of Renesas Electronics; and Lavanya S, Senior Department Manager at Tata Electronics.
SEMICON India 2026 runs from September 17 to 19, 2026, in New Delhi, jointly organized by the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) and SEMI. The event brings together global chip manufacturers, policymakers, and industry leaders over three days.
Opening the session, Shraddha thanked Amitesh Kumar Singh, CEO of the India Semiconductor Mission, for consciously including the women's panel on the SEMICON India stage, noting that previous editions of the conference were predominantly male. She acknowledged that when discussing deep technology and R&D, men are primarily recalled. Shraddha urged the audience to study the achievements of the speakers and share their stories with their daughters, sisters, and friends.
Alpa, who initially studied law and now leads Teradyne's business in India, summarized her role as: engineers create the best products, and she ensures their delivery to those who need them. She emphasized that this work requires resilience, and it is okay to cry if you come out smiling the next day.
Usha shared her complex journey: from IBM in the United States, through earning a Ph.D. from MIT, to returning to India and taking on a leadership role she hadn't planned. She attributed this to curiosity, a willingness to try new things, and the adaptability required by every new venture. The absence of a fixed twenty-year goal allowed her to embrace opportunities as they arose, without viewing them as distractions.
Radhika, who spent a decade working on global operations strategy in semiconductors and participated in the first ISM 1.0 approved project, recalled a photo from SEMICON India 2024 showing about 28 men and no women. She kept this photo on her phone, showed it to her leadership team, and stated that it became one of the reasons for her move to India in April 2025.
Malini, a mother of two, built her career in applied engineering, choosing breadth over depth, and returned to India about five years ago to build and scale Renesas' design team.
Lavanya, who previously worked at TSMC in Taiwan before joining Tata Electronics to launch India's first factory, mentioned that the then-CEO of TSMC said every CEO starts as an engineer. She noted that regardless of gender, the path forward is to take on the most challenging projects early on.
The most pointed moment arose when Shraddha asked about a pattern she observes globally: women in leadership roles are often labeled as either too emotional or, if they demand more, as difficult, unlike men who meet the same standards.
Malini shared an instance where she was told she wasn't ready for a position because she cried at work, which, in the eyes of the assessing man, made her emotional. Her reaction was to listen to him, and then honestly assess whether the remark was fair, instead of rejecting or blindly accepting it. She concluded that she would lead by being sincere, logical, and communicative, and if this sometimes involved tears, it was part of her personality, and others should accept it.
Alpa's story began in her first four years of work, when she was repeatedly told that a woman should go home earlier, and more interesting assignments went to others. The only person who supported her was a security guard in her office, where she was one of the few who stayed until midnight. He wasn't even on duty at the time but waited every night until she finished and walked her to the auto-rickshaw. The lesson she learned was that caring for a woman's safety is real, but it is not a reason to send her home; there is always a way around it, and support can come from someone who has no obvious vested interest in your career.
Usha spoke about her early confusion regarding what kind of leader she should be. Most leaders she saw were men, and the stereotype was that leaders should be strict and strong, while women are expected to be soft and empathetic. The only exception in her career was when all her first, second, and third-level managers at IBM were women with MIT doctorates, including Lisa Su, now CEO of AMD, highlighting how rare this is. Her final answer was to stop choosing between these two molds and to be authentic, stating that modern global leaders recognize that the best style combines both qualities.
Radhika raised a more subtle issue: women often receive less feedback than men because male managers fear perceiving them personally, which is well described in the autobiography of Indra Nooyi. She thanked her Israeli mentor for a phrase that changed her approach to stress: it is not personal, it is just business.
Lavanya advised that if someone leaves a team stating they do not want to work with a woman, the response is not to take it personally. She strongly urged junior managers to seek mentors in different departments and even in other companies.
The numbers explain why this conversation is still necessary. According to a 2025 report by talent solutions firm NLB Services, women make up about a quarter of the Indian workforce in chip design and engineering, numbering approximately 220,000 people. This share is projected to exceed 30% by 2027 and reach 35% by 2030. However, the gap widens sharply at the upper levels: the same report shows that men hold between 93% and 95% of leadership positions in India's semiconductor sector, leaving women with only 5%–7% of senior roles.
Part of this is due to a historical lack of women in core engineering and deep technology fields, as well as the many moments Malini cited where a career can 'slip': marriage, childbirth, raising children. Her advice was that these are not dead ends if one creatively approaches balancing these aspects and continues moving forward.
When asked for practical advice for teenagers, the speakers gave specific recommendations. Lavanya advised girls that they are still routinely steered toward IT for a Bachelor of Science degree, and they should instead choose electronics and communications or electrical engineering, backed by internships on larger projects. Usha told young women not to limit themselves to gender or just software, adding that women tend to overthink the difficulties they will face, whereas, in her experience, the problems are minor, and recognition comes through authority.
Alpa's advice was to study business and finance early on, as well as develop situational awareness—the ability to read the environment and understand how to advance business. Radhika answered Singh's question about how the industry can stop the early exit of women from careers, noting that the next two decades in semiconductors will likely offer one of the most rewarding careers available, and that any problem, personal or professional, can be solved with patience.
As India's investments in semiconductors transition from announcements to launching operational factories, packaging lines, and design centers, the industry will require a much broader talent pool than it does today. The speakers suggested that bridging the leadership gap will depend less on one-off panels and more on whether companies continue to build mentorship networks, flexible career paths, and visible role models. Shraddha concluded by noting that the industry still fails to tell women's stories properly, and thanked ISM for transitioning from policy to execution over four years and for setting a standard by presenting these leaders on the SEMICON India stage.
