Daily News Analysis ‘DHRUV64: India’s Indigenous 64-bit Microprocessor’ : 19 December

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology announced the launch of DHRUV64, a fully indigenous microprocessor developed by C-DAC to strengthen India’s domestic processor ecosystem.

DHRUV64 is a 64-bit, dual-core, general-purpose microprocessor developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) under MEITY’s Microprocessor Development Programme.
It operates at 1 GHz and is designed to be capable of running modern operating systems while remaining suitable for embedded and industrial applications.
The processor aims to reduce India’s dependence on imported processor designs and supply chains, which are critical for telecom, industrial control, and strategic systems.

DHRUV64 is based on the RISC-V open instruction set architecture, which allows chip design without licensing fees and offers flexibility in adding security or performance features.
It is part of the Digital India RISC-V (DIR-V) programme, which seeks to build a portfolio of indigenous processors for industry, defence, space, and consumer technologies.
The chip is positioned for applications such as telecom base stations, routers, industrial automation, automotive modules, and control systems, where reliability and long-term availability matter more than peak performance.

DHRUV64 complements other Indian processors such as SHAKTI (IIT Madras), AJIT (IIT Bombay), VIKRAM (ISRO–SCL), and THEJAS64 (C-DAC).
MEITY envisions DHRUV64 as a platform for startups, academia, and industry to build and test products without relying on foreign processors.
The government is supporting this ecosystem through initiatives like Chips to Startup, Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme, INUP-i2i, and projects under the India Semiconductor Mission.