She Builds Chips: The Women Powering India’s Semiconductor Revolution

At SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi, five senior women leaders from global chip companies took the stage to discuss the challenges and strategies for women to rise to top positions in the semiconductor industry. The panel, titled "Women Shaping the Electronics and Semiconductor Industry," was held on September 18, 2026, during the second day of a three-day event.

The panelists included Alpa Sood, Usha Gogineni, Radhika Viswanathan, Malini Narayanamoorthi, and Lavanya S, representing Teradyne, Micron, Applied Materials, Renesas, and Tata Electronics respectively. The panel was moderated by Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory and The Bharat Project.

Opening the session, Shradha acknowledged the deliberate effort by Amitesh Kumar Sinha, CEO of the India Semiconductor Mission, to feature a panel of women amidst predominantly male-dominated conferences on R&D and deep tech. She encouraged the audience to learn about the panelists' achievements and share their stories with their daughters, sisters, and friends.

Each panelist shared their unique paths to the semiconductor industry. Alpa, a lawyer turned engineer, emphasized the importance of ensuring engineers deliver the best products to consumers while highlighting the resilience needed in her role. Usha, who started her career in the US before returning to India, attributed her success to curiosity, adaptability, and a lack of rigid career goals.

Radhika, who witnessed a significant shift in the industry's gender ratio during her time at SEMICON India 2024, decided to move to India in April 2025. Malini, a mother of two, balanced her career in applications engineering and her family commitments to build Renesas' design team in India. Lavanya, who transitioned from TSMC to Tata Electronics, highlighted the importance of embracing challenging projects early in one's career.

The panelists addressed the common stereotypes faced by women leaders in the industry. Malini shared a story about being criticized for being emotional during a workplace incident, which taught her to handle criticism genuinely and logically. Usha questioned why leaders were often expected to be stern and strong, while women were stereotyped as gentle and empathetic, emphasizing the need to be authentic in one's leadership style.

Radhika discussed the issue of receiving less feedback than male colleagues, a phenomenon she attributed to male managers' concerns about taking criticism personally. She found guidance in Indra Nooyi's autobiography, which encouraged a business-focused approach to handling pressure. Lastly, Lavanya advised first-time managers to seek mentors from diverse backgrounds to navigate the complexities of leadership in the semiconductor industry.