IESA Vision Summit 2016 Assess $400Bn ‘Make in India’ Opportunity
India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) Vision Summit 2016 commences its annual industry leadership conclave, with a commitment to evolve the ESDM industry into a $400B ‘Make in India’ opportunity. Themed under “Indian Semiconductor & ESDM Ecosystem: Scaling up for $400B Make in India Opportunity” recognises the need to elevate focus on the immediate opportunities in the indigenous ESDM landscape.
During his speech, Dr. Ajay Kumar, Additional Secretary, DeitY. Govt of India notes, “It is the easiest time in Indian history to start and grow a company in India and the government is keen on involving tech and ESDM sector in order to spur the ecosystem. Digital India will provide more impetus to the Electronics sector in India. Between December 2014 and December 2015, India added 100 mn internet users, more than any other country in the world. India achieved its first 100 million internet users in 15 years. There were 159 ESDM production units established in India last year and the technology sector is expected to be $1 Tn opportunity in India in the next 5-7 years – $400 Bn of hardware, $350 Bn of Software and $250 Bn of Telecom and IoT. The tech sector could potentially contribute 25% of India’s GDP.”
“There is a huge opportunity for innovation with Local languages. We cannot scale any technology products and solutions if the devices and services are not talking to 1.25 Bn people in their local languages. Govt. has released a draft policy for supporting local languages and making machine-translation into local languages a reality in India,” he added.
Delivering the theme address Nicholas Brathwaite, Founding Partner, Riverwood Capital, a globally-renowned private equity firm which has shown immense interest in India’s ESDM startups, said “We are on the edge of hardware revolution and it’s going to be more complicated than the app revolution. ‘Make in India’ is a broad vision but the agenda should be ‘Make FOR India’ with focus on Indian priorities. The ecosystem needs to drive affordability, low power and spectrum consumption, and explore expertise and entrepreneurial skills available in the country. However, ‘Make in India’ should not just focus on catering to local Indian market and reducing imports but should have a global outlook. Competition will come from global companies and not just local companies. And, these companies will have Indian personnel, just like most of the tech companies in Silicon Valley have at least one Indian in the senior management.”
The summit with support from Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), has conducted a half day workshop, with government representatives, industry veterans and academia expounding on various aspects of intellectual property rights such as IPR protection, commercialization and patent filing procedures. A boot camp for start-ups was organised on how to apply for DeitY Support for Patent Protection in ESDM and on patent filing procedures and related strategies.
The 11th edition of IESA Vision Summit has received participation from the Government of India and witnessed the highest ever participation from State governments, with representation from Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
“Last year witnessed India’s Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) aspirations gaining wide visibility world over, driven by the forecast of $400B local electronics consumption. The aggressive ‘Make in India’ push internationally has helped the Indian ESDM ecosystem to elevate its agenda from conviction to action, thereby bringing stronger interest in investment into the nation with a strong focus on domestic manufacturing, indigenous design, innovation, creation of IP assets,” said Vinay Shenoy, Chairman, IESA.
The Digital India & Start-up India initiatives gained further momentum, along with efforts to improve skills across the various segments – from PhDs to shop floor workers, all of which are essential for Innovation-Engineering-Manufacturing of Electronics in India,” he added.
M. N. Vidyashankar, President, IESA said, “Investment in the electronics manufacturing sector has jumped over six-fold to reach Rs 1.14 lakh crore in 2015, and this re-established the need for initiating dialogues to seize the$400B ‘Make in India’ opportunity. With aggressive engagement from government, industry bodies and industry, we have witnessed the transition of India as a Global manufacturing destination.”
“ESDM startups are key to India’s $400B ‘Make in India’ opportunity. IESA would focus on creation of more and more startups and will provide them with platforms to establish themselves in the ESDM ecosystem,” added Vidyashankar.
Sri Ravi Shankar, Founder, The Art of Living, will present the prestigious IESA Technovation Awards 2015 for excellence in Electronics System Design and Manufacturing across various categories.
