The Hindu Business Line : Chip cos need to look at emerging areas: ISA

Bangalore, Dec. 27 The design services market in India must look beyond just IC (integrated chip) design and focus on other areas such as product engineering and application support. The market must constantly strive to add value to the design process.

Companies must not be obsessed with the markets of US and Europe alone. They must look at the domestic market and other emerging countries of Brazil, China and Russia. These were some of the broad thoughts that emerged out of a panel discussion on the design services market organised by the Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA). Mr S. Janakiraman, Chairman, ISA, and President and CEO- R&D Services, MindTree Consulting: “The semiconductor design industry in India is slated to touch $37 billion. We are moving in that direction. Emerging countries of Brazil, China and Russia are also opportunities, apart from the US and Europe. Everyone is eyeing these markets and we should also be doing that.”

Dr S. Karthik, Engineering Director, Analog Devices, said the design services market involved much more than IC design alone. There are other processes in the semiconductor industry such as product engineering and testing and application engineering which need to be looked into for end-to-end solutions.

Mr Janakiraman said India must be seen as a market for value addition, more than just cost arbitrage.

Mr Raghu Panicker, Sales Director, Mentor Graphics India, too emphasised on the need for value addition and that India cannot afford to marginalise itself in one area alone.

EDA sector

Electronic design automation (EDA) is an emerging area that requires attention. Large development is happening on this front today in India, said the panellists.

Not much venture funding enters this industry due to the risks involved and the uncertain risk-reward equation. What the sector should be striving for is talent, mindset and innovation, said Mr Surendra Jain, MD, Sequoia Capital.

Consumption

On the consumption side, there is so much potential in India today. India is no longer a low cost, cheap market. The Indian market looks for value for money and consumers want higher features at optimised prices, said Mr Sanjeev Keskar, Country Manager, Sales, Freescale Semiconductors.

Total consumption of semiconductor products today is $2.7 billion and it is poised to touch $5.4 billion by 2009.

The speakers also rued the lack of sufficient role models in the semiconductor industry. They also felt the need for more PhDs from India in this field, at the same time stressing that mere bookish theoretical knowledge is not enough.