EFY Awards 2011 announced

By Nitasha Chawla

On March 16, 2012, Electronics For You, a premier publishing group for the electronics industry, presented the 8th edition of the EFY Awards at a ceremony held in Le Meridien Hotel, Bengaluru. These awards aim to recognise the leading brands, organisations and individuals in their respective segments within the Indian electronics industry. The awards were presented across 26 product categories based on votes from the readers of the EFY and Electronics Bazaar magazines. Awards were also given in three special categories, selected by a jury of six members.

Professor Sadagopan, director, IIIT-Bangalore, graced the occasion as the guest of honour. Addressing the audience, he said, “It is high time we start manufacturing electronics in India. The use of electronics is huge in aviation, and will only increase multifold in sectors like healthcare and in small factories. So we cannot keep on importing. We have to get out of the, ‘Let China do the hardware and manufacturing, we’ll handle software and services,’ mode.”

Ramesh Chopra, vice chairman of the EFY Group, said, “To keep up with the changes in industry and the products churned out by it, every year the categories for which the awards are announced are reviewed and changed, as per requirements. However, this year we have made drastic changes in the product categories by substituting consumer electronics and IT products with core electronics products, which are more relevant to the sectors of the industry that EFY caters to.” The new product and service categories that have been added to the Readers’ Choice Awards are SMT pick and place machines, EMS firms, LEDs, LED drivers, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and sensors, actuators and transducers.

The winner of the new award for the Best EMS Firm, Sanjiv Narayan, managing director, SGS Tekniks Manufacturing Pvt Ltd, said, “We are extremely delighted to receive this recognition. SGS has completed 20 years and since its inception, we had been struggling to generate awareness about the EMS concept in the Indian industry. What makes me happier is that the readers have selected us as the best EMS firm. I give all the credit to EFY readers as they have recognised the efforts and struggle of a home grown company.”

Another first time winner in the SMT Pick and Place category, N Chandramohan, country head, SMT division, Juki India Pvt Ltd, said, “We are deeply honoured in receiving this award, specially because it is the Readers’ Choice Award. This has been possible due to our customers and the readers of EFY who have voted for us in this category.”

Some of the companies have been EFY readers’ consistent favourites for years. It was a hat-trick for both Sparsh and Weller, who won the Readers’ Choice Award for the categories CCTV Cameras and Soldering and Desoldering Stations, respectively. “This is the third time we have won this award, which encourages us to compete with new technologies and innovations. The readers of EFY have boosted our confidence to perform even better each year,” said Sanjeev Sehgal, managing director, Sparsh.

Ajay Sethi, managing director, Weller, said, “It has been our continuous effort to bring out new products and we are happy to see these efforts being recognised by EFY readers.”

Omron received the Readers’ Choice Award in two categories—Switches and Relays as well as Sensors, Actuators and Transducers. Vinod Raphael, country manager, Omron Electronic Components, said, “It gives us immense pride to accept the Readers’ Choice Award from EFY. As a company with a global presence, this award recognises our contribution in the Indian market and, at the same time, increases our responsibility as a member of the electronics industry.”

Among the EFY Jury Awards, the Electronics Man of the Year was won by Inderdeep Singh, president and managing director, Continental Device India Ltd, (CDIL); the Electronics Organisation of the Year was presented to Dixon Technologies (India) Pvt Ltd, and the Lifetime Achievement Award was bagged by Om Wadhwa, CMD, JV Electronics and past president, ELCINA.

The EFY Readers’ Choice Awards are now a regular annual feature, which is looked forward to eagerly by the industry. Therefore, a decision has now been taken to announce their dates a year in advance so that those interested may mark the next date in their calendar. The EFY Awards 2012 will be held on March 15, 2013, again in Bengaluru, informed Ramesh Chopra.

————————————————————————————————————————————-

Winners of EFY Jury Awards

Electronics Man of the Year: Inderdeep Singh, president and MD, CDIL

Electronics Organisation of the Year: Dixon Technologies (India) Pvt Ltd

Lifetime Achievement Award: Om Wadhwa, CMD, JV Electronics and past president, ELCINA

————————————————————————————————————————————-

Winners of Readers’ Choice Awards