Doing Masters in VLSI in India

It is always recommended for a BTech in ECE/EEE who wish to get into the world of VLSI to do Masters from reputed institutes. This is because after BTech, anyway we have to pay hefty amount for doing course in VLSI. Instead of that doing Masters will fetch you a degree as well could bring a good offer through your campus itself.
But remember: You have to do it from a reputed institute which has got all industrial VLSI tools (Synopsys, Cadence, Mentor Graphics and Xilinx)

There are lots of reputed nationalized/private Universities offering Masters degree in VLSI/Microelectronics.

The best among them is to get into IITs/NITs/IIITs through GATE/AIEEE exam. All these institutions generally have all sorts of industrial VLSI tools.

Options in Hyderabad:

BITS-Pilani (Pilani, Hyderabad, Goa, Dubai) which conducts their own entrance exams. It has got all sorts of industrial VLSI tools.

IIIT-Hyderabad offers a very good course as MS by Research. It has all sorts of industrial tools.

IIT-Hyderabad is another option for doing MTech in VLSI. It is also expected to have all sorts of Industrial VLSI tools.
OU & JNTU Campus.

How I entered into VLSI field?

VLSI being a niche field, I believe not all aspiring for it, get into it. It requires a little extra effort for a student of ECE/EEE to get into this field compared to other fields as there is a large gap between academics and the industry. Below are few experiences shared by the people who are into this field on how they entered into this world.

"I did my BE in ECE. I always wished to enter into VLSI field right from the days when I had VLSI as a subject in Engineering 3rd year. Decided to do a course after finishing Engineering but it's fee was huge; ~1lac. Worked as a lecturer in Engineering colleges for 2 years to have some money. Finally chose TIIT, Hyerabad for a course in backend designing which was also a certified course from University of California, USA and in collaboration with Cadence Design Systems. I was hired by TTM, the R&D for TIIT.".......Mahboob (Currently working as Physical Design Consultant at AMD, Hyderabad)

Current Job Openings in VLSI

To be updated.

Final Year Project on VLSI

There are number of options available to do a project in VLSI. Following is one among them.

There is a VLSI tool called "Electric VLSI" available over internet for free.

This software is a very good tool which gives the exposure almost like a real industrial VLSI tool.

A student can do major tasks involved in doing a VLSI project such as writing and compiling Verilog/VHDL codes, simulation, drawing schematics, drawing layout, Routing, DRC/LVS, etc.

It also supports different design technologies:

CMOS

NMOS

Bipolar

Enter into this unique world of VLSI for free:

http://www.staticfreesoft.com

Learning VLSI at College

The industrial VLSI tools are never available for free over internet nor the cracked versions are available anywhere. These tools are licensed and cost crores of rupees.

However, learning industrial VLSI at college has been possible these days. With growing demands of fulfilling the gap between the academics and the industry, VLSI tools vendors and the University authorities have made it possible for even an average grade college to afford these tools.

The industry standard VLSI tools are provided by the major VLSI vendors such as Cadence, Synopsys and Mentor Graphics at very low cost.

Few colleges that have these tools in and around Hyderabad are:
CVR college of Engineering
Keshav Memorial institute of Technology
Malla Reddy College of Engineering
MJ college of Engineering.

What is GOOD: Front End or Back End

How should I know what is good for me? either FE or BE.

In order to know what is good for an individual it is first required to know what are the prerequisites and their respective work profile.

Both FE and BE require knowledge of basic electronics with emphasis on semiconductor physics, digital circuits and excellent debugging and analysis skills.

FE additionally requires Verilog/VHDL, C/C++ and extensive waveform analysis skills.

BE requires knowledge of how transistors are formed using various layers, extensive analysis of resistance, capacitance, current and voltage characteristics, good timing and power concepts. 

Lots of Opportunities with Service based Companies...

Basically there are two types of companies:

Product based and Service based.

Product based companies have their own projects. 

Service based companies take projects from product based companies, involve or provide resources and execute the project.

Nowadays, lots of service based companies have come up with lots of opportunities specially for freshers or the students having done some courses on VLSI.

Following are few of the service based companies which has a good reputation in the VLSI industry:

SmartPlay
eInfoChip
Whizchip
Soctronics
Sicontech
Synapse