CEOs Celebrate the Success of ESDM Industry in India at EFY Expo 2015

NEW DELHI, February 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

India's Sahara and Taiwan's Infomax Sign an Agreement to Manufacture Industrial Mobile Phones in India

Day 2 at EFY Expo 2015 started with the ELCINA CEO Summit. Guests from the industry shared their views on the success of the present ESDM industry in India.

Inaugural Session

Mr. Subhash Goel, President of ELCINA, started the session with his welcome address. He said that through EFY Expo the two largest promoters of the electronics industry - ELCINA and EFY, are working together to take electronics industry to the next level. As one of the important announcements made at the expo, he announced that ELCINA is very close to launch their first manufacturing cluster near Bhiwadi. He also announced that ELCINA has put in special efforts to improve the relationship between Taiwan and India in terms of the electronics industy. "ELCINA has approached various associations in Taiwan for their participation and support in the first international attempt of ELCINA," he added.

He concluded saying, "Government has taken many initiatives and I am sure all these initiatives will lead India to create a competitive vibe on the globe and will also take the industry to a new level."

Mr. Rohit Markan, Sales Director - India, Dow Corning India shared, "Electronics market is going to become a $100 billion to $350 billion market in 2018, but the key question today is, what will be the clear application for the future?"

"As we analyse market there are three market drivers - Form & functions, connectivity and optimization between cost and value," he said.

He concluded saying, "Silicons can be the next thing in the industry for reliability, flexibility, thermal management, optical clarity. We are really excited for the growth of industry. Working together we will be enabling tomorrow's technologies."

Ambassador Mr. Chung Kuwang Tien, representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Center said, "I came here to witness an arranged marriage between Taiwan hardware and India software. The marriage which has been waiting from a long time. Let me rewind to 1995 when we first came to India, it was much later than others. In the beginning we were putting in a lot of efforts in US and South East Asian countries, where we now stand amongst the biggest investors. But the other countries are facing problems like laws, environment etc. and India is definitely going to be the next destination for investment. India will be a very strong consumption force. India has a young work force and has a very strategic location. This is why we came in late but came in very fast."

"I believe India does provide a lot of opportunities for Taiwan. I believe this is a new chapter for the two sides to cooperate," he concluded.

Chief Guest Mr. R S Sharma, Secretary, DeitY, Govt. of India, said, "One of the important goals of 'Made in India' is that we should have zero import in electronics by 2020 and we want approx 400 billion dollar market by 2020."

"In today's 100 billion market we import 70% of electronics and to stop this import, the country has no option but to think of 'Making in India'. We are proud that in DeitY we take a very aggressive discussion with the industry before making any policy, which is why our policies do not face criticism. We do agree every policy has a shelf time which is why we keep on interacting with the industry to update it from time to time," he said.

"I agree that there are certain disabilities, but we will continue to work with you to help you so that we are able to create a vibrant manufacturing environment in the country. We are coming up with innovative solutions which are solutions from the industry itself. India is the next destination for manufacturing but we need to work hard in persistent and consistent manner and be assured the department will continue to work with industry to work to achieve the result of zero import by 2020," he concluded.

In the thank you note, Mr. Vikram Desai, Vice President of ELCINA, said, "EFY has done an excellent job in bringing the industry together." He also thanked the Govt. of MP for being their state partners and acknowledged the support of sponsors and delegates, hoping they would stay on for the events to follow as well.

India's Sahasra Electronics & Taiwan's Infomax Communication, the arranged marriage

After the fist session, Informax Communication - Taiwan and Sahasra Electronics - India, signed an agreement to manufacture industrial mobile phones in India. Sahasra will be manufacturing these in their Noida plant. The two companies also showcased the first samples of the phone after the agreement.

Mr. Amrit Marwani, CMD Sahasra said, "After Made in India announcement Infomax invited Sahsara to look at their plants in Taiwan and the story concludes today as this agreement. We believe that these industrial mobiles will have a potential scope in India."

These industrial mobile phones will be capable of becoming a seamless wi-fi and a walkie-talkie for no network areas like mines.

Session 2 - Make in India and MSIPS & EMC success stories

The session two started with Mr. M Selvendran, MD, Madhya Pradesh State Electronic Development Corporation Ltd. He shared, "When Government of India saw the dream of zero import by 2020, we thought why not to make use of this opportunity. Madhya Pradesh is a state that has a surplus in power i.e. uninterrupted power 24/7/365. Our labour laws have been revamped extensively in 2014 October and MP is a state that has never witnessed industrial unrest."

"With no surprise inspections, single return to be filed, law that states women can work in night shifts, MP is definitely one of the best places to set up a manufacturing unit. Our state has one of the best manpower with Indore being an educational hub and more than 40 engineering colleges at board. We have IIIT, IIM and IIT and cost of Human Resource is also competitive," he added.

Mr. Selvendran concluded saying, "We are planning a PCB cluster in Gwalior that can be allocated to anyone who wants to come, and two electronics clusters of 40 acres in Bhopal and 50 acres in Jabalpur are still under process so he invited companies to join the clusters. Everything starts with an idea and we look forward for your support. We have the best of India and we are willing to go the extra mile to modify our policies and rules."

Mr. Amrit Manvani, CMD, Sahasra Electronics said that there are 4 pillars of National Electronics Policy, which are - EMC cluster scheme, MSIPS, PMA policy and EDF.

"In early 2013 these parameters were defined and they motivated the aspiring groups to get into electronics. Policy said that there were 7 verticals and every vertical had a threshold limit. If you invest beyond this, you get certain benefits. We took advantage of the scheme and submitted an application for the same to DeitY. We thought it will take at least 2 years to process but we were surprised they took it quickly, which is remarkable by any government department," he said.

"The points that DeitY looks for are: Adequate financial resource plan and state-of-art setup, so that the technology is sustainable for a period of time. DeitY guides you through the process and technical evaluation committee holds your hand to help you go through the project. Good news for MSIPs schemes is that the government is very supportive. SMEs are treated at par with big multinationals and Sahasra was the only Indian SME to make use of this policy," he added.

"I encourage my friends from industry to go ahead, make an application and make use of the government policies," Mr. Amrit concluded.

Mr. Vinod Sharma, MD, Deki Electronics & Director ELCINA Electronics manufacturing cluster, said, "At the moment India's per capita electronics consumption is 50 to 60 dollars, whereas internationally it's 200 to 300 dollars. The democracy and demographics are two benefits of India. The challenges that India has are the 3 Cs: Cost - cost of energy, finance and transaction is expensive. Corruption - Let's face it inspite of what Mr. Modi has been telling us, corruption is there. There are inspectors who are still here with as bad intentions. I am hopeful this will change in a few years to come in some of the states and I think it's time to become mobile and shift to better states. Complexity - It's always good to join hands with an Indian company and that marriage is the only way to work in India's complex ecosystem."

In an interesting calculation Mr. Vinod shared that companies usually ignore Indian competent manufacturers considering their higher cost as compared to Chinese manufacturers but in reality, the longevity of Indian components is at least 12.5% higher. Plus your transport bills and taxes will make Indian components much cheaper.

He concluded saying, "In three years from now, if you are ready to pay 5 to 7% more to Indian component manufactures, we can stand together as a strong industry."

Mr. Praveen Gupta, Director, NTL Electronics, said, "It's important for all of us to know that we should try to build organisations that can sustainably grow." He shared the story of NDL saying, "We started with communication business and when we entered with our first component we had 17 manufacturers in the industry. After a few years there were just 3 companies left and we were one of them. Our USP was not the design as designs can be duplicated, so we invested in our internal system. NDL was first to move in LED space."

"But something that I share at every platform is that we need to build the organisation. While the specially engineered products is our USP, our organisation quality is what we believe in i.e. we have some core values, business ethics, HR process."

"We have taken a target which is given to our supply chain, that our current 75% of imported components, need to be taken down to at least 40% in next 2 years and we are urgently looking for local suppliers," he concluded.

Sasikumar Gendham, Director, Salcomp Manufacturing, said, "Salcomp is today globally #3 in all external adapters and chargers ranked by net sales. The company is active in the $10B external adapter and charger market. It has global network of sales offices and manufacturing capacity of 520 Mpcs/a."

He shared, "We came to India for Nokia as we were supplying to them globally and we did our set up in Chennai. 90% of our employees are women. We have produced about 500 million chargers by 2015, which is half of the population of the world. We are also looking to expand and export, and we are very close to that."

"Currently our biggest supplier is China, but we want to localize the procedure, and industry in India has a golden opportunity for this. A conclusion of one of the major case studies in our company says that India is one of the best spaces to get into the manufacturing industry."

About EFY Expo

The Electronics For You Expo,  organized by EFY Group, is a unique electronics event that focuses not only on "components" and "manufacturing equipments", but on the entire ecosystem of electronics in India. To build a comprehensive platform for the electronics industry, the EFY Expo puts together everything that an electronics event should provide-from innovation (new technology) and product design, to manufacturing and product sales.

Visitors at this expo range from innovators and design engineers, to manufacturers and B2B buyers. Over the past 43 years, the EFY Group has become synonymous with the cutting-edge technology. Today, this renowned media group is spread across 8 locations catering to the intellectual needs of a diverse readership across India and abroad.

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