This session included two presentations: India—The Global Hub for Semiconductors & Electronics, by Jani Janakiraman, chairman, India Semiconductor Industry Association, and Automotive Electronics & New Technology Trends in Indian Automotive Industry, by VG (Vasuedo) Gujrathi, senior general manager, Electricals & Electronics, TATA Motors.
Janakiraman’s panel started out by showing a pie chart of the world’s population and included a prediction that India’s population is expected to reach 1.63 billion by the year 2050, surpassing China. He also displayed a chart showing that by 2050 India would have the third largest economy in the world, second only to China and the U.S. As far as electronic equipment goes, Janakiraman expects India’s electronic equipment consumption to grow from 1.8% in 2005 to 5.5 % in 2010 and 11% in 2015, which represents about $363B.
He also showed a slide from a study done in conjunction with Frost & Sullivan last year of the India semiconductor total market (TM) and total available market (TAM) revenues (Fig. 1). The forecast is for India semiconductor TAM revenues to grow 2.5-times in 2009, while TM doubles revenues. He went on to describe some of the highlights of the electronics industry in India. For example, five of the top 15 EMS companies globally have set up their manufacturing facilities in India (Celestica, Elcoteq, Flextronics, Jabil Circuit, and Solectron), while two others are in the process of setting up plants (Hon Hai Precision Industry and Sanmina-SCI). In the Indian embedded design industry, CAGR is expected to be about 30% from 2005 to 2015 (Fig. 3). Called the Nano, it is expected to be launched in the second half of 2008 and present additional opportunities for the Indian electronics industry.
The second talk in this session, Automotive Electronics & New Technology Trends in the Indian Automotive Industry opened up with a slide entitled “Improving the Quality of Life.” To this end, the Tata Group includes 96 operating companies encompassing: engineering, materials, chemicals, energy, services, information systems and communications, and consumer products. In the automotive section, the group includes Tata Motors, which is India’s largest automobile company, as well as the world’s fifth largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, and Tata AutoComp Systems, an umbrella organization of several automotive component manufacturing companies. Since 2000, the Tata Group has been on an acquisition spree buying all kinds of companies from all over the world such as Tetley, Daewoo’s commercial vehicle company, Good Earth Corp., Millennium Steel of Thailand, U.S.-based Eight’O Clock Coffee Co. and, most recently, Land Rover and Jaguar.
Tata Motors employs over 3000 scientists and engineers in its R&D facilities and is focused on developing complex embedded electronic control systems for its vehicles. In terms of trends, Gujrathi pointed out that electronic systems are no longer stand-alone modules, and instead there is in-vehicle networking of all control and information systems for enhanced performance and safety. He gave as examples complex control systems for engine management, ABS, air bag deployment, climate control and safety, as well as infotainment systems with radio, video, GPS-based navigation plus route guidance and other Internet applications. And, like other vehicle manufacturers, Tata is working on alternative power train technologies in order to conserve energy. During his talk, Gujrathi mentioned that Tata Motors has plans for introducing vehicles suitable for global markets and has developed a world class crash test facility (Fig. 4) to meet the needs of both Indian and international markets.