Special Manpower Development Programme (SMDP) initiated by the Ministry of Communication & Information Technology (MCIT), Government of India is a vision to make our country a significant player in VLSI Design and related Software.

 The program has its origin in the 9th Plan, when the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India,  aimed to increase India's share of global VLSI Design market from 0.5 percent to 5 percent by the end of the Plan period. Considering the availability of quality human resource as a key catalyst for achieving this target, in 1998, DIT initiated the "Special Manpower Development Programme for VLSI Design and Related Software" (SMDP-I), involving nineteen institutions categorized into 7 Resource Centers (RC's) and 12 Participating Institutes (PI's). After completion of this project in March 2005, the second phase of the program (SMDP-II) was started in 2005  with the inclusion of additional six participating academic institutions. The Ministry has provided adequate funds to set up VLSI Design Laboratories with advanced CAD software tools in all the 25 institutions involved in this program.

 The objective of SMDP-II is to train manpower both at undergraduate (B.E / B. Tech) as well as  Masters (ME / M.Tech) and Doctoral (Ph.D) levels  in VLSI Design / Microelectronics. The establishment of VLSI Design Labs at RC's and PI's would also strengthen the academic programs in these institutions.