C2S vs DLI Scheme: Students or Startups?

C2S vs DLI scheme compared: who can apply, what each gives, incentive caps and where to apply, with a decision chart for students, faculty and founders.

By BitForBytes Editorial & Hardware Research Team, Official BitForBytes Hardware Publication · 2026-10-09 · 9 min read

⚡ Quick Summary

C2S and DLI are two separate MeitY chip-design schemes. The Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme funds and equips academic institutions to train students; the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme reimburses domestic companies, start-ups and MSMEs for up to 50% of eligible design expenditure, capped at ₹15 crore per application. Students benefit through C2S; founders apply to DLI.

1. Introduction & Core Motivation

India's semiconductor announcements arrive as a cluster of abbreviations: ISM, C2S, DLI, PLI, SCL, ChipIN. A final-year student who wants to learn chip design and a two-person fabless start-up that wants to tape out a product are both told "the government has a scheme for that". They are different schemes, with different applicants, different money and different portals.

Mixing them up wastes months. Students search the DLI portal for a training programme that is not there. Founders read C2S news and wait for a start-up call that the programme was never structured to issue as its main route. Existing explainers describe each scheme alone, usually from a finance or exam-preparation angle, and stop before the question a reader has: which one is for me?

This article puts the two side by side using official figures from the Press Information Bureau (PIB), c2s.gov.in and chips-dli.gov.in. After reading, you will know which scheme matches your situation, what it gives, and where the application starts.

2. Detailed Technical Breakdown

What Is the Core Difference Between C2S and DLI?

The core difference is the beneficiary: C2S supports academic institutions to build talent, while DLI supports companies to build products. Both are run by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and both use the ChipIN Centre at C-DAC Bengaluru for design infrastructure.

Parameter	C2S Programme	DLI Scheme
Full name	Chips to Start-up Programme	Design Linked Incentive Scheme
Purpose	Capacity building: train chip designers	Offset cost disadvantages of domestic chip-design companies
Who applies	Academic institutions and R&D organisations	Domestic companies, start-ups and MSMEs
Can an individual apply	No	No; the applicant is a company
Main benefit	Project funds, EDA tools, training, fabrication access	Reimbursement of design cost, sales-linked incentive, design infrastructure
Headline numbers	₹250 crore outlay over five years; target 85,000 trained	Up to 50% of eligible expenditure, cap ₹15 crore; 6% to 4% of net sales, cap ₹30 crore
Portal	c2s.gov.in	chips-dli.gov.in
Nodal agency	C-DAC	C-DAC
Scale reported	305 academic institutions (PIB, January 2026)	95 start-ups (PIB, January 2026)

What Exactly Does DLI Pay For?

DLI pays through three components: design infrastructure support, a Product Design Linked Incentive and a Deployment Linked Incentive.

DLI component	What it gives	Limit
Chip Design Infrastructure Support	Access to EDA tools, IP cores and prototyping support through the ChipIN Centre	Per scheme guidelines
Product Design Linked Incentive	Reimbursement of up to 50% of eligible expenditure on semiconductor design	₹15 crore per application
Deployment Linked Incentive	6% to 4% of net sales turnover over 5 years, for designs deployed in electronic products	₹30 crore per application

The target segments are integrated circuits, chipsets, systems on chip, systems and IP cores, and semiconductor-linked design. The first incentive is paid against money you spend on design; the second is paid against revenue once the chip is in a product. A company with no sales yet can still use the first.

The DLI portal adds an ownership condition: more than 50% of the applicant's capital must be beneficially owned by resident Indian citizens, and that status must be maintained for three years after claiming incentives.

What Exactly Does C2S Give an Institution?

C2S gives an institution money for chip-design R&D projects, centralised EDA licences, training and a route to fabrication. The PIB explainer of 18 January 2026 lists the manpower target by level.

C2S element	Detail
Outlay	₹250 crore over five years, launched 2022
Training target	85,000: 200 PhD, 7,000 specialised M.Tech, 8,800 other M.Tech, 69,000 B.Tech
Other targets	Incubate 25 start-ups, enable 10 technology transfers, 50 patents
EDA tools	Centralised access through ChipIN; 11 vendors listed on c2s.gov.in
Fabrication	Shared wafer runs at SCL Mohali on 180 nm, about every three months
Results by January 2026	About 67,000 trained; 122 design submissions from 46 institutions; 56 chips delivered

Note the "incubate 25 start-ups" line. C2S is expected to produce founders; it does not fund their companies. That hand-off is where DLI begins.

Which Scheme Applies to You?

The scheme that applies depends on whether you are acting as a learner, an institution or a company.

                     Who are you?
                          |
      +-------------------+--------------------+
      |                   |                    |
  STUDENT             FACULTY /            FOUNDER of an
  (B.Tech,            INSTITUTION          Indian company,
  M.Tech, PhD)            |                start-up or MSME
      |                   |                    |
      v                   v                    v
 No direct         Is the institution     Is more than 50% of
 application.      already in C2S?        capital owned by
 Use C2S tools         |       |          resident Indians?
 through your         yes      no              |       |
 college.              |       |              yes      no
      |                v       v               |       |
      v           Use tools, Request EDA       v       v
 Want to build    training,  tools from    Apply on   Not
 a product?       MPW        ChipIN        chips-dli  eligible
      |           shuttle    (c2s.gov.in)  .gov.in    for DLI
      v
 Incorporate a company -> you are now in the FOUNDER column

Three situations cover most readers.

A student in a C2S college: your benefit is the lab. Use the tools, attend the training and, if your institution participates in the shuttles, get a design fabricated.
A student in a non-C2S college: your department can request EDA tools from ChipIN if it runs ECE or VLSI programmes and has a VLSI lab and permanent faculty. Start-ups and MSMEs are told on the same page to use the DLI portal instead.
A founder: DLI is your scheme. You apply as a company on chips-dli.gov.in, and the infrastructure component gives you tool access while the product incentive reimburses part of your design spend.

How Do the Two Schemes Connect?

The two schemes connect in sequence: C2S produces trained designers and prototype chips, and DLI supports the companies those designers start or join. They also share plumbing.

Shared element	C2S	DLI
ChipIN Centre	Serves 300+ institutions with tools, compute and support	Provides design infrastructure to approved companies
EDA tool hours (PIB, November 2025)	Over 1 lakh students, more than 125 lakh hours	90-plus start-ups, about 50 lakh hours
MPW fabrication	Student designs at SCL Mohali	The c2s.gov.in MPW page lists support for start-ups and MSMEs as well

A realistic path looks like this: learn the flow on C2S tools as a student, tape out a small design on an SCL shuttle, graduate, incorporate, and apply under DLI when you have a product design and the ownership structure the scheme requires.

3. Practical Takeaways for Students

Exam angle: For current-affairs or viva questions, give one line each. C2S: MeitY, 2022, ₹250 crore, academic institutions, 85,000 trained. DLI: MeitY, domestic companies and start-ups, 50% of eligible expenditure up to ₹15 crore, 6% to 4% of net sales up to ₹30 crore. Both: C-DAC as nodal agency, ChipIN Centre.
Interview angle: "What do you know about India's chip-design schemes?" Separate training (C2S) from company incentives (DLI) from manufacturing incentives (fabs and packaging plants under the wider Semicon India programme). Candidates who blur these sound like they read one headline.
Common mistake: Assuming DLI funds student projects or that C2S hands grants to start-ups directly. Neither is the main design of the scheme. Students reach C2S through an institution; companies reach DLI through an application.
Try it yourself: Whichever column you are in, the skill is the same. Take one design from RTL to layout on open tools, starting with RTL practice in the BitForBytes Verilog Judge, so that you can use licensed tools well when you get them.

4. Frequently Asked Questions

Can a student apply for the DLI scheme?

No. DLI applicants are domestic companies, start-ups and MSMEs engaged in semiconductor design, so a student cannot apply as an individual. If you incorporate a company that meets the ownership condition, more than 50% of capital beneficially owned by resident Indian citizens, that company can apply.

Until then, your route into government-supported chip design is your institution's C2S access, or your department's request to the ChipIN Centre for EDA tools.

Is the DLI scheme the same as the semiconductor fab incentive?

No. DLI covers chip design only. Incentives for semiconductor fabs, display fabs, and assembly, testing and packaging plants are separate schemes under the same Semicon India programme, which was announced in December 2021 with a reported outlay of ₹76,000 crore.

The distinction matters for careers. DLI and C2S create design jobs such as RTL, verification, physical design and analog. Fab and packaging incentives create process, equipment and manufacturing roles.

Can a start-up take part in C2S?

A start-up can take part in C2S only indirectly. The 2022 C2S call allowed start-ups and MSMEs to join through academia-industry collaborative projects, grand challenges and hackathons, with an academic institution as the anchor. It was not a direct start-up grant.

For direct support, the c2s.gov.in tool-request page points domestic start-ups and MSMEs to chips-dli.gov.in. Check the current guidelines of both schemes for any rule on drawing benefits from both.

How many companies has DLI supported so far?

PIB's January 2026 explainer counts 95 start-ups under the DLI Scheme, and the chips-dli.gov.in portal listed more than 100 approved companies in October 2026. A PIB release of late November 2025 reported 90-plus start-ups using about 50 lakh hours of EDA tools.

These counts come from different dates and use different definitions, approved companies versus tool users, so quote each with its source and date.

5. References & Further Reading

Press Information Bureau, "Chips to Start-up (C2S) Programme: Fostering India's Indigenous Chip Design Ecosystem", 18 January 2026.
Design Linked Incentive Scheme portal, chips-dli.gov.in (eligibility, ownership condition, approved companies; retrieved October 2026).
Vikaspedia, "Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme for Semiconductor Design Sector" (summary sourced from the DLI portal).
Press Information Bureau, release PRID 2196422 on EDA tool access and MPW fabrication services, November 2025.
MeitY C2S portal, c2s.gov.in: ChipIN Centre, MPW shuttle and EDA tool request pages (retrieved October 2026).
EE Times India, "MeitY Seeks Applications for DLI Scheme from Domestic Semiconductor Design Firms" (PIB release, 2022).