Indian chip majors form association

BANGALORE: With a mandate to create global awareness about India's semiconductor industry and bring it out of the generic 'IT' umbrella, semiconductor companies like Insilica, Broadcom, Open Silicon Research and Magma Design Automation, have come together to create a national level body called the Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA).

The industry association has already attracted 35 member companies including Intel, Texas Instruments, Alliance Semiconductor, on its roster. Around 40 more companies including semiconductor/service companies, PSU and MNC semiconductor companies, EDA companies, semiconductor IP/embedded software/TPP service providers, academia and Venture Capitalists are being targeted.

Managing Director and CEO of e4e Labs India Sridhar Mitta, who is the chief mentor, said that though many high value chips are designed in India, not many are aware of this. "We have the ingredients of value creation, but lack the value," he opined.

Some of the main objectives of the ISA are to promote better interaction between semiconductor companies, the government, academia, VCs and industrial bodies. The association would also strive to work with universities so that a talented pool of engineers is created.

The global semiconductor industry is valued at $230 billion of which Indian industry accounts for approximately $100 million. Head of R&D services of MindTree and executive council member of ISA, S Janakiraman, said, " In India, the industry is growing at 60 percent. It's a major but silent growth area. In the last six months, we've seen companies like Intersil, Nvidia and LSI setting up shop in India."

Managing Director of Broadcom, Rajendra Khare, said that the biggest semiconductor companies are fabless outfits like Nvidia and Broadcom. "We feel that India can follow this model and get into the big league," he added.

As an immediate initiative, the ISA has booked an ISA pavilion at the forthcoming BangaloreIT.COM, which would showcase around 20 semiconductor companies. A conference titled "Semiconductor industry in India: The next big thing" has also been planned during the event which would feature speakers from the industry, VCs and academia.