IESA, NASSCOM Partner to speed up ‘Make in India and Digital India’ agenda for ESDM and IT

India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA), the trade body representing the Indian Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) industry and The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enable India in becoming a leading player in the next era of ESDM and IT.

This partnership between the two industry associations aims to create a common agenda that will guide the government and industry to construct policies and an environment leading to the creation of ESDM and IT products, solutions and brands out of India. This initiative will help leverage strengths in software services, design & innovation and push major revolution in the economic development of the country through Make in India and Digital India.

Electronics, Computing and communication paradigms are shifting at a very fast pace and from mainframes to the new Internet of things, there has been a clear convergence of hardware, software and services in the recent times. India has been positioned as a global leader in building and delivering software and IT services, contributing more than 9% to the GDP.

Indian electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) market is expected to grow from $76 billion in 2013 to $94 billion in 2015 and touch $400 billion in the near future. This offers an incredible opportunity to contribute to the economic development of the country in the next decade, thereby impacting in reduced foreign exchange outgo.

The present era of technology innovation requires electronics, computing and communications to converge and deliver a holistic solution to address the industry demand. IESA and NASSCOM, will drive Vision 2025, with IT and ESDM taking its GDP contribution to 25% and also help the nation to create globally scalable products and brands. Under the initiative, both the entities will work towards improving India’s stature in the IT and ESDM space and bring the nation among the top 5 global players in the EDSM and IT sector by 2025. The broad based MoU will have initial focus on the Defense, Aerospace and IoT space.

Vinay Shenoy, Chairman, IESA commented, “The collaboration between the two premier Industry Associations NASSCOM and IESA is a natural outcome of similar goals and mindset. NASSCOM traditionally began with IT, ITES and later expanded to Engineering R&D & associated services. IESA began with semiconductors product development and services and through natural evolution enlarged its scope to cover Electronics Systems Design and Manufacturing. The value of the co-operation lies in the largely complementary and partly overlapping membership, which brings fresher outlook and a more holistic perspective.”

“Smart cities, Defence and ‘Internet of Things’ have been of strong interest for both IESA and NASSOM. By joining forces, we are now better able to address “Device-Infrastructure-Application” and the interplay between them. Initial focus areas are likely to be policy frameworks, enabling capability build up, knowledge sharing, eco-system discovery & promotion. Others areas will emerge as creative juices from joint working groups begin to flow”, added Mr. Shenoy.

R Chandrashekhar, President, Nasscom while talking about the MoU said, “India has evolved into a global powerhouse for delivering software and services for customers across geographies and verticals. In recognition of the transformative impact of IT on the Indian economy and the government’s vision of “make in India”, we believe that there is an equal opportunity for India to win the next wave of electronics design led manufacturing. Through this partnership, we are confident to create the right ecosystem to build a foundation for Indian companies to take the lead in this growing sector.”

“Under the scope of MoU, both the industry associations will bring key stakeholders and partners from Industry, Government, Academia and Investment community closer and identify key areas of investments to develop an ecosystem that enables creation of complete solutions, including hardware, software and services, as per local and global needs,” said Vidyashankar, President, IESA.

It will also aim to inspire entrepreneurship and drive start-up incubation for electronics and computing product development from India. The partnership also intends to establish ties with foreign governments and international markets along with investment promotion to set-up manufacturing and R&D operations in India.

The MoU will also explore collaboration with Central and State Governments for the formulation of favorable policy framework, required for encouraging domestic product development and manufacturing. The activities under this charter will be guided by a Steering Committee with the presence of NASSCOM and IESA along with representation from DeitY, venture funding and academia with maximum capacity limited to 11 members.