Chowdhry added that the foundation is planning to build a chip for LED bulbs. He said one of India’s largest manufacturers of LED bulbs was importing from a single source in China
Not-for-profit think tank EPIC Foundation is looking to set up a 100-acre Electronics City in Delhi to be able to develop the electronics product design and manufacturing ecosystem. It has also signed an MoU with the state government for the same.
“It will be a plug-and-play facility modelled around flatted factories, and has the potential to generate 80,000 jobs. The idea is to have 40 manufacturing facilities that are vertically integrated,” said Epic co-founder and HCL co-founder Ajai Chowdhry. A flatted factory is a multi-storey, high-rise multi-tenanted factory used for manufacturing, assembly and storage.
Epic Foundation was formed with support from industry and academia with two objectives – create Indian electronics products and Indian brands in high-impact/high-volume categories; and to drive demand for chips by scaling the volume for Indian electronics products. The other two founding members of the not-for-profit organisation include fellow HCL founder Arjun Malhotra, and semiconductor industry veteran Satya Gupta.
Gupta noted that Indian brands and products in electronics is 7-8% out of the $180 billion market opportunity for the electronics market. “The long-term charter is to have 25% market share for Indian products. That represents a $45 billion opportunity, and we are going after that,” he said.
Chowdhry added that the foundation is planning to build a chip for LED bulbs. He said one of India’s largest manufacturers of LED bulbs was importing from a single source in China.
“An Indian LED driver chip made in India is a great opportunity, given that consumption of LED bulbs will reach a billion units in the next few years. Supported by ELCOMA (Electric Lamp and Component Manufacturers Association of India), the top 10 LED players in India have agreed to buy this chip. The large number of silicon wafers and chips required for this project can help in reviving SCL (semiconductor lab in Mohali) and create a huge business for the upcoming India ATMPs (assembly, testing, marking, and packaging units),” he said.
