EFY Felicitates N Ramachandran With Lifetime Achievement Award

BENGALURU, March 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

EFY Awards 2012 Were Presented Across 26 Product Categories. The Awards Also Featured Six Special Categories, Selected by a Jury of Four Members

The Indian electronics industry has now reached a mark where it has started getting global attention and government funds. Despite adverse global economic conditions, the Indian electronics industry has the ability to withstand pressures and grow. All this is the courtesy of the efforts of some people, companies and organisations, who have acted as catalysts in furthering the growth of the Indian electronics industry. Recognising their contribution towards the growth of the Indian industry, Electronics For You has felicitated the pioneers of electronics fraternity with EFY Readers' Choice Awards 2012. The award ceremony was organised on 15 March at Le Meridian, Bengaluru, where the who's who of the industry were present to honour the winners.

N Ramachandran, MD, MEL Systems & Services Pvt Ltd, is one such important person in the Indian electronics industry, who has been instrumental in building a strong turf for growth.

N Ramachandran is an electronics engineer from MIT, Chennai. He also has management qualifications from the Delhi University and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade along with 36 years of experience. Ramachandran has also undergone Management Development Programs in Geneva (ITC) and Australia. He is associated with a number of trade bodies, including CII and ELCINA and has worked tirelessly to support industry development.

His company MEL Systems caters to many verticals including EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Services), Electronic Repair & Maintenance, Defense/Space, Strategic Electronics, Telecom/Photonics, Engineering and Process Industries.

He has also served as the president of ELCINA in 1996, and afterwards as a part of the executive committee. During his role, he was active in gathering support in terms of removing the fiscal disadvantage suffered by the industry in terms of taxes and duties on inputs, providing protection to the industry like the auto components industry, etc. He was also involved in making suggestions to increase the manufacturing in India of high volume products like consumer electronics and telecom products, which were implemented at a later stage.

Thanking EFY for honouring his efforts, Ramachandran said, "It is a humble feeling to be recognised for an award like this after your career and especially at a time when I would be relinquishing my responsibilities for the younger generation. It feels nice that the industry and especially, EFY has recognised my work. I have had the time of my life working in the electronics industry. Seeing the world move from the days of the valves to the present day micro-electronics, it has been a journey of which I've enjoyed every moment."

Apart from this, EFY Awards 2012 were presented across 26 product categories to brands voted by the readers of Electronics For You magazine and Electronics Bazaar. The awards also featured six special categories, selected by a jury of four members.

Ever since its inception in 2004, EFY Readers' Choice Awards event, is eagerly awaited by the industry every year. The aim of EFY Awards has been to motivate, support and recognise outstanding brands, organisations and individuals who have furthered the growth story of the Indian electronics industry. The awards have evolved with time in response to the demands and suggestions received from the stakeholders of the Indian electronics ecosystem and our valuable readers.

"To keep up with the changes in the industry and the products churned out by it, the awards announced are reviewed every year and changed as per requirement. This year the EFY Awards Jury decided upon three new awards which are the Best Initiative by a Government Organisation, Certificate of Excellence 2012 for Emerging Organisation of the Year, and 'Certificate of Excellence 2012 for Government Organisation of the Year'," says Ramesh Chopra, founder and vice chairman, EFY Group.

Here's a list of winners of EFY Awards 2012:

Capacitors: Vishay

Resistors: Vishay

Diodes & Transistors : Vishay

LEDs: OSRAM

LED Drivers: Texas Instruments

Sensors, Transducers, Actuators & Related ICs: Honeywell

Switches & Relays: Omron

Connectors: Phoenix Contact

Microcontrollers: Atmel

EDA Tools: Cadence

Multimeters: Fluke

Oscilloscopes: Tektronix

Soldering & Desoldering Stations: Weller

Educational Kits & Trainers: Vegakits

Solar Cells: Moser Baer

Solar Panels: Tata Power Solar Systems

SMF Batteries: Exide

Inverters: Microtek

UPS Systems: Microtek

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs): Siemens

EPABX and Key Telephones: Panasonic

CCTV Cameras: Bosch

Training Institutes (Electronics): Jetking

Pick & Place Machines (SMT): Juki

Printed Circuit Boards: PCB Power

EMS Organisations: Flextronics

EFY Jury Awards:

Lifetime Achievement Award: N Ramachandran, managing director, MEL Systems and Services Ltd

Electronics Leader of the Year: Dr Ajay Kumar, joint secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India

Electronics Organisation of the Year: Panasonic

Best Initiative by a Government Organisation: Department of Electronics and Information Technology

Certificate of Excellence 2012 for Emerging Organisation of the Year: MyBox Technologies Pvt Ltd

Certificate of Excellence 2012 For Government Organisation of the Year: Centre for Development of Telematics, Government of India

About EFY Awards:

EFY Readers' Choice Awards were instituted in 2004 with 30 categories under which the Awards were presented of these 30 categories, 15 categories fell under core electronics, such as Oscilliscopes and Multimeters and 12 fell under consumer electronics, such as televisions and microwave ovens. Under the remaining three categories, special Awards like 'Lifetime Achievement Award', 'Electronics Man Of the Year' Award and 'Electronics Organisation of the Year' Award were presented. The function was held at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, and enjoyed tremendous media coverage.

Encouraged by an overwhelming response received from the industry, EFY Readers' Choice Awards were made an annual event thereafter. Year 2005 witnessed the second serving of EFY Awards which became even more successful than the first one, with CNBC TV as the media partner. The venue for this year remained the same.

The procedure for nominations and finalising these Awards is very simple. As the name suggests, these are based purely on the nominations invited from the readers of 'Electronics For You' magazine, recorded and till 2009 analysed by the leading market research agency in India, IMRB. The whole system is totally transparent and based on readers' perception towards a particular brand.

EFY Awards have been conceptualised by the EFY Group, which is one of the oldest and most popular technology publication houses in India. EFY Group's flagship publication 'Electronics For You' is the most popular electronics magazine in the whole of South Asia. This magazine started with its first issue dated January 1969 and is considered to be the most trusted publication in the field of electronics.

About EFY Group:

Over the last four decades, the EFY Group has become synonymous with information on cutting-edge technology. Today, this renowned media group is spread across eight cities of India, and caters to over two million techies spread across the globe.

Its print publications not only reach every nook and corner of India-our mailing list has over 6,000 zip-codes -but are also read by techies in South Asian countries, like Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Afghanistan. The Group is also amongst the few Indian publishers to have its publications distributed in Singapore and Malaysia.

The online communities of the Group provide tech content to readers from all across the globe. The Group's online portfolio includes some global leaders, such as: http://www.electronicsforu.com/, http://www.linuxforu.com/, http://www.efytimes.com/, http://www.electronicsb2b.com/ and http://www.eleb2b.com/. Plus, the Group manages three social media (Facebook) communities, which are global leaders in their respective domains. These include: www.facebook.com/designelectronics, www.facebook.com/opensourceforu and www.facebook.com/tablets.india.

Recently, the Group launched digital editions of its publications to make them easily accessible to readers all across the globe. The Group's digital publications are now available in all popular platforms including iOS (Apple), Android, Kindle and e-zine (web browser). The Group has also tied up with leading online distributors including Amazon, Scoop, PocketMags, Zinio, Magzter, etc.

The events division of the Group was strengthened with the launch of Electronics For You Expo in 2011. Now, the group boasts of a strong portfolio of events including EFY Readers' Choice Awards, ELCINA-EFY Awards, Electronics Rocks, EFY Design Engineers' Conference, and Open Source India.

The Group's passion for technology and its expertise in knowledge-sharing is now being channeled into building a strong hands-on training programme through the EFY Tech Center. The Tech Center is working with the industry and academia to create industry-ready engineers.

The Group has set itself the target of empowering and helping 10 million techies, across the globe, by 2015, and it's investing heavily on growing the online communities and increasing the number of readers of its digital publications to achieve the goal.

Primary Media Contact: Diksha P Gupta, [email protected], 91-9717854520

Secondary Media Contact: S Aadeetya, [email protected], 91-9873486869