IIT Madras began hosting the 3rd Digital India RISC-V (DIR-V) Symposium 2026 on Saturday, August 1, with the two-day event running through August 2 at the institute’s Research Park in Chennai.
The symposium is organised in partnership with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and RISC-V International, bringing together policymakers, global technology experts, researchers, startups, industry leaders, investors, faculty and students.
This year’s theme, ‘Empowering Bharat’s Semiconductor Future,’ centres on advancing indigenous processor technologies, secure computing systems, hardware innovation, artificial intelligence and the expanding RISC-V ecosystem in India.
The two-day programme includes keynote addresses, technical sessions, panel discussions, hands-on workshops, technology demonstrations, exhibitions and startup showcases, along with the DIR-V Grand Challenge Hackathon featuring solutions built by students and startups using RISC-V technology.
Registrations for in-person attendance closed on July 26, 2026, after the event reached full venue capacity, though the symposium is being live-streamed on YouTube with no registration required to watch.
RISC-V is an open-standard instruction set architecture that chipmakers can use and modify without licensing fees, unlike proprietary alternatives, making it a focal point of India’s push to build domestic chip design capability.
RISC-V is an open-standard instruction set architecture that has drawn growing interest from chipmakers worldwide because, unlike proprietary architectures, it can be used and modified without licensing fees.
India’s semiconductor push has gathered pace over the past two years, with the government backing fabrication units, chip design centres and research programmes aimed at reducing reliance on imported processors.
IIT Madras Research Park, the venue for this year’s symposium, has emerged as a hub for deep-tech startups working on hardware, semiconductors and embedded systems in the country.
Previous editions of the DIR-V symposium have drawn participation from chip designers, academic researchers and government officials, reflecting the event’s role as a meeting point for India’s RISC-V ecosystem.
Photo by Tester051005, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
