Rourkela: Underlining the state’s emerging capabilities in advanced chip design and innovation, NIT Rourkela presented an indigenously developed security chip to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at SEMICON India 2026, being held at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi from Sept 17 to 19.The lightweight cryptographic chip, developed to provide secure data encryption and authentication for resource-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) and embedded systems, was part of a special emblem carrying contributions from 20 institutions across the country, which was presented to the PM by student designers.Among them was Pradeep Kumar Mohanty, a PhD scholar in the department of electronics and communication engineering (ECE) at NIT Rourkela, who interacted with the PM during the presentation.According to an institute release on Friday, the showcased ASCON AEAD Security Chipwas designed by Mohanty under the supervision of Prof Ayas Kanta Swain and Prof Kamalakanta Mahapatra. The chip was developed under the ministry of electronics and information technology’s Chip-to-Startup (C2S) programme, with the project at NIT Rourkela led by Prof Mahapatra and Prof Swain. It was fabricated at Semiconductor Complex Limited (SCL), Mohali.NIT Rourkela said it was the only institution from Odisha to receive this recognition at SEMICON India 2026. The institute, which has been involved in semiconductor education and chip design since 1999, said it will continue to focus on manpower development and indigenous chip innovation.
