Progress at ISA: Message from BV Naidu, ISA chairman

INDIA: As received via email from ISA:

Dear leader,

Wish you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year, 2010. We are looking ahead at a year of challenges and opportunities. In these times, your industry body India Semiconductor Association ISA is striving hard and playing a proactive role in working with members, various Governments and international organisations to facilitate the growth of our industry and increase the effectiveness of our member companies.

The ISA Vision Summit 2010 will see the participation of around 200 executives from within India and outside. The theme on the India market – Momentum for growth in the new decade will see an excellent quality of discussions and valuable inputs for business decisions. Vision Summit 2010 will be on February 1 & 2, in Bangalore, and we have received confirmations from some global thought leaders. We have requested Government of Karnataka to unveil the Karnataka Semicon Policy during this event. During this Summit, we are also announcing the Technovation Awards 2010 in the new format which focuses on start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovation.

The ISA AutoExCITE 2010 saw the participation of around 100 executives from within India and outside. The theme on smart and green automobiles saw excellent quality of discussions and valuable inputs for business decisions. For the first time, ISA participated at the Auto Expo in New Delhi, with this event. This Expo provided a great opportunity for the industry players to unite under the same roof and showcase their role and capabilities in the evolving automotive segment.

ISA has successfully organized the 2nd Solar PV Conference 2009 on November 9 at HICC, Hyderabad. The theme of the conference was Solar PV: Powering India’s future – the way forward. This Conclave addressed the needs of this evolving sector in India; and got together the key players, business leaders, technology experts and strategists on a common platform. The Conclave provided delegates a unique insight from international and national speakers of repute on crucial issues. This conference has created a huge impact on the overall industry and Government. ISA has initiated discussions with The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Germany and encouraged them to be a part of the Indian ecosystem. ISA has facilitated the MoU between Government of Andhra Pradesh and The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems to set up an exclusive institute in Hyderabad.

ISA also has been active at the BangaloreIT.biz 2009, by conducting a unique event, the Embedded Electronics Event, E3 having a special focus on embedded electronics. The theme of the conference was embedded electronics: Trends and opportunities in India. During this event, industry thought leaders set the tone with a design and manufacturing perspective. During the course of the BangaloreIT.biz, ISA announced the winners of Technovation Awards 2009.

In the past few years, industry research has focussed on providing data on the semiconductor market through the ISA-F&S Report updates. ISA member companies felt that it is extremely critical that regular updates, specifically on the semicon market, be available to the key stakeholders. In this regard, it has been decided that, starting from 2010, there will be four reports on the market- (1) the comprehensive report which is similar to the updates done previously and (2) three quarterly updates. These reports will be carried out by the Frost & Sullivan team for the next two years. Forthcoming reports in this year are the ISA-IDC report on the semiconductor and embedded design service industry; smart card industry; the solar PV industry; and the medical electronics industry. Regular monthly online polls echo the sentiments of the sector. For the past year the monthly polls have provided valuable data on market sentiment and emerging trends. Every month the polls are gaining increasing traction and we encourage you to participate and voice your opinion. WINwire moves into year 5 and addresses over 15000 readers every week.

Delegations to and from the country provide great value to ISA members. In the last few months, delegations have visited Japan and the UK. These delegations have focused on the embedded design service industry and the solar photovoltaic space. A key delegation in September was one to Hamburg Germany. This delegation was primarily to attend and participate in the 24th EU PVSEC & the 3rd Global Demand Conference.

At the Government level, ISA enormously increased its stature by engaging itself at the highest levels of various Ministries and Departments. ISA has been accepted as an important industry body and a think-tank by these Ministries and Departments. ISA has engaged itself at the strategic level by developing the semicon design industry, electronics systems design ecosystem, high tech manufacturing including solar, LED and LCD in India. We have continuous interaction with Ministry of Communications & Information Technology MCIT, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy MNRE, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council NMCC and Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion DIPP etc. At the state level, ISA has been advising various State governments and acting as a think-tank for developing this industry sector. At present, ISA is engaged actively by being a part of several committees. It also is responsible for giving the sector the importance it needs. At the State level, interaction with the Governments of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Rajasthan continues to grow. ISA has also submitted the draft for an exclusive Semicon Policy to the Government of Karnataka.

This year ISA has also been chosen to Chair the Consortium of Electronics Hardware Industry Association CEHA.

In the past few months, ISA has been very actively engaged with Department of Information Technology DIT, Government of India. ISA is heading the subcommittee of the Task Force and has submitted recommendations on increasing the effectiveness of “Electronics Systems, Design and Manufacturing (ESDM)”. These recommendations are being actively deliberated at various levels and DIT has assured the industry that these will be implemented at the earliest.

Going forward, our spotlight will be to focus on the electronics systems design and manufacturing, and work with the Government to increase penetration of Indian innovation and Indian products in the growing domestic market. This will eventually help in decreasing the gap between Total Market and Total Available Market. ISA will focus on market verticals of primary interest to our members as also geographies for collaboration. This would be driven by members. These verticals will include automotive, energy, healthcare, telecom, solar PV and smart governance. In terms of geographies, ISA is working with UK through the UKTI and the Cambridge Cluster (chiefly for chip design and renewable energy); Japan through JETRO & ASTSA (chiefly in automotive electronics and embedded software); and Israel through the IEICI (for chip design and renewable energy). Activities include business meetings, joint events and delegations to serve as valuable facilitating grounds.

ISA commenced its activities in 2004-05 when semiconductors were not even in the vocabulary of the IT industry. We realized there was a huge need to make semiconductors, and later electronics, a “national” agenda. Over the years we have seen increased participation of members and 2009-10 saw a greater retention and an increase in membership. As of now, there are around 140 members. This year itself we have added 23 new members to ISA.

In conclusion, ISA is marching ahead with more activities, more visibility, more acceptance & support from Governments, at both Centre and at State levels. This has been possible with a great team at the Secretariat, active participation and involvement of the Executive Council, Office Bearers, and of our members in various Core Initiative Groups CIGs. This synergy will take the ISA to the next level.

We need your continued support and ideas for ISA to serve you, our members, more efficiently. Please feel free to write to me if you have any suggestions.