'Make in India' drive gathers strong momentum at IESA Summit

BANGALORE, INDIA: The 10th edition of IESA Vision Summit by India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) has started in Bangalore on Monday with a theme to transform the vision of “Make in India” into a reality.

The event was attended by Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and Dr. K Radhakrishnan, former Chairman, ISRO, who was a key player in the success of Mangalyaan. Andhra Pradesh chief minister N.Chandrababu Naidu was not present in the event, but addressed the audience through a video message and emphasized on the importance of IP creation, and need to move away from low value addition manufacturing to high value-add manufacturing. Both the chief ministers assured that the respective state governments are keen to aid this transformation.

The two-day summit focuses on the need for accelerating investment promotions, international alliances, start-up ecosystem and policy implementation to strengthen India’s contributions in Design-led Electronics Manufacturing.

Officials from the Govt. of India and various state governments including Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Odisha attended the event and highlighted the formulation and implementation of ESDM policies in their respective states and the incentives as well.

M. N. Vidyashankar, President, IESA said,“The Indian industry is best suited to create a strong partner network focused on ESDM to improve the component ecosystem. With aggressive engagement from government, industry bodies and corporates, we are confident the ESDM environment will soon witness manufacturing to gather pace. The involvement of state governments has provided the required momentum with special manufacturing zones for electronics manufacturing created in every state, utilizing its edge on natural resources, infrastructure in the overall purpose of ensuring that India becomes an ESDM powerhouse.”

About Rs. 2,950 crores investments were announced yesterday by Bosch, Tejas Networks and Tessolve Semiconductor, who will make investments in the field of electronics as part of their expansion plans. The companies are making investments under the government's special incentive scheme, M-SIPS.

It’s no more a dream, electronics manufacturing is now a reality for India,” said Dr.Omkar Rai, Director General, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).“We are gradually inching towards building India as a manufacturing ready nation for the electronics segment, with a robust infrastructure comprising of entrepreneur parks, incubation centres, component ecosystem etc.," said he.

IESA Vision Summit 2015 also presents an opportunity to the start-up ecosystem to connect with the industry leaders and mentors in a 90-minutes speed dating session. Thirty ESDM start- ups in the field of medical electronics, smart cities and energy management, will get to interact with VCs, business and academic mentors.