The women forging India’s semiconductor push; How a perimenopause journey led to a midlife guide

Dear Reader,

The closing day of SEMICON India 2026 brought to the fore ideas and proposals to give a push to collaboration and innovation and raise overall standards in the ecosystem. 

India Semiconductor Mission CEO Amitesh Kumar Sinha has pitched a mega gathering that brings Semicon India, Bharat Electronics Manufacturing and Export Summit, and India Mobile Congress together in the same city and around the same location. Sinha believes this would help participants meet potential partners under one umbrella and better understand how semiconductors, electronics manufacturing, and telecom connect with each other. 

This comes at a time when India looks to connect semiconductor manufacturing more closely with electronics, components, telecom and exports. 

In other news, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade plans to come out with clearer guidelines and a policy framework within the next two to three months to address Quality Control Order-related hurdles faced by semiconductor and other deeptech companies. Quality Control Orders mandate that specified products comply with Indian standards, with the Bureau of Indian Standards overseeing certification.

In news from the world of global tech, just days after calling for a slowdown in AI development, Anthropic is planning to roll out a new AI model ahead of an expected IPO, Reuters reported. This comes in the wake of OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra gaining momentum. 

Lastly, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is expected to brief the United Nations Security Council next week at the annual gathering of world leaders in New York for the UN General Assembly. The Security Council is to meet on Wednesday on AI and international security. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• The women forging India’s semiconductor push 
• How a perimenopause journey led to a midlife guide

Here’s your trivia for today: Who is generally credited with the title of ‘father of the fabless industry’? (Scroll down for the answer)

Semicon India 2026

The women forging India’s semiconductor push 

A panel moderated by Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory and The Bharat Project, discussed the reasons why there are so few women leaders in the semiconductor industry and what it takes for women to rise to the top. 

The panellists were 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 Narayanamoorthi, President of Renesas India and Vice President at Renesas Electronics; and Lavanya S, Senior Department Manager at Tata Electronics.

Key takeaways: 

• Senior women executives from Teradyne, Micron, Applied Materials, Renesas, and Tata Electronics suggested ways to close the leadership gap in the industry, through mentorship networks, flexible career paths, and visible role models.
• Alpa, who leads Teradyne's India business, said the job takes resilience first, and it is fine to cry it out as long as you show up the next day with a smile. Usha of Micron emphasised the importance of adaptability, curiosity, and a willingness to try different things. Meanwhile, Radhika of Applied Materials raised a subtle problem: women often get less feedback than men because male managers worry they will take it personally, a point she said Indra Nooyi's autobiography makes well.
• Malini built her career in applications engineering, chose breadth over depth, and returned to India about five years ago to build and scale Renesas’ design team. Lavanya, who worked at TSMC in Taiwan before joining Tata Electronics to help bring up India's first fab, said, the way forward, regardless of gender, is to take on the hardest projects early. 

Books

How a perimenopause journey led to a midlife guide

In Women-O-Pause, actor and author Lenaa Kumar brings together her personal experience, research and expert perspectives to make conversations around perimenopause and menopause more accessible.

Key takeaways: 

• Actor Lenaa Kumar did not set out to write a book on menopause. She began writing to make sense of a life stage that can leave women questioning their bodies, identities and sense of self. The physical, mental and, “energy-wise” unravelling became the starting point of an obsessive year of research, eventually leading to Women-O-Pause. 
• Women-O-Pause is a midlife guide based on her understanding that every human being is a composite of consciousness, energy, mind and body. In the book, Lenaa distinguishes between the outward-facing energy women have been conditioned to operate in and what she calls feminine energy—receptive, intuitive, restorative. 
• The book is written in a simple and accessible language, so that the information reaches everyone. The idea is to make sure the average woman, with no science or medical background, can understand it easily. 

News & updates

• AI evaluation: Anthropic is to partner with Accenture for an independent evaluation of ​its frontier AI models, with the companies each committing at ‌least $1 billion over the next five years to build capacity for the work.
• AI hacks: Google’s Gemini model accessed the internet and hacked other companies during a test of its cybersecurity capabilities. The hacks occurred in May during a cybersecurity test conducted by Irregular, an independent company that conducts cybersecurity evaluations.

Who is generally credited with the title of ‘father of the fabless industry’?

Answer: Gordon A. Campbell

We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail [email protected]. 

If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here. For past editions of the YourStory Buzz, you can check our Daily Capsule page here.