Indian semiconductor industry yet to come out of infancy

Bangalore, Nov 1 (UNI) The Semiconductor Industry and the Indian Government need to wake up to ensure a trouble free expansion of the sector to realise its full potential, panelists at a round table on the future of semiconductor industry.

Organised by the Indian Semiconductor Association as part of the 'Bangalore IT.in 'which concluded here yesterday, the round table saw experts seeking the industry leaders join hands with the government to bridge the supply and demand gap besides taking steps to ensure availability of quality manpower.

The industry was expected to contribute 6.83 per cent of India's GDP by the year 2010. Despite the promise of having a huge GDP content and a phenomenal electronic equipment market beckoning it, the Semiconductor Industry was yet to come out of its nascent stage the panelists opined.

They felt that the industry which made a 'planned slow start' in 1985 should grow faster in view of the huge potential.

Dr Viswadip Mitra, Managing Director of Texas Instruments, who moderated the round table said it was unfortunate that the impact of the semiconductor industry on the Indian economy was not much talked about.

Quoting a study conducted by ISA-Frost and Sullivan, Anand Kumar, Managing Director of chip design technology company Magma, said it was time the country produced all its requirements in Semiconductor products and reduce the dependence on multinationals. The country's consumption of electronic equipment, for which semiconductors act as the brain, would rise to more than 200 billion US Dollars by 2008 and 360 billion dollars by 2015, which would be 16 per cent of the world share, he added.

According to the report, last year it was at 28.2 billion dollars at a compounded annual growth of 29.8 per cent. However the growth rate was expected to shoot up to 50 per cent in 2010. The electronic equipment manufacturing expected to grow at 5.5 times the global growth rate during 2010 and 2015.

"The innovation for the products consumed by us should happen within the country. The Indian SC market is so exciting that we should not let this chance to pass by and we have to do the job ourselves," Mr Anandkumar said.

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