With the introduction of PLI schemes and Government initiatives, the Indian electronic manufacturing industry is growing manifold. Haresh Abichandani, MD, Millennium Semiconductor in conversation with Sudeshna Das, consulting editor, EFY Group, shares his views about the Indian electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) ecosystem and his company’s strategies as a partner of this ecosystem.
Q. You are a part of the Indian ESDM ecosystem for quite a long time. What is your view on the growth potential of this segment in INDIA in the next five years?
A. Growth potential at this moment looks very promising. The market has increased multifold after the government initiative, Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, and production in India specially for electronic components and products. Today, India is the second largest mobile handset manufacturer globally in the volume term. Though the level of mobile handset manufacturing is yet not at the level that we would expect but still, I see there is a scene change. Even, 5 to 10 years back we were hardly manufacturing any mobile in India. Today, all market leaders including Apple, Samsung, Vivo, and Xiaomi have their manufacturing units in India. I think roughly 300 million pieces of mobile phones are manufactured per year in India. This is a huge boost for the Indian ESDM industry. It also creates lots of employment opportunities in this sector. This ecosystem will further evolve from the complete knock-down (CKD) product level to components. Major Indian companies like Lava and Intext are focussing on ideation and going beyond assembling. These initiatives would be beneficial for the industry.
Q. Do you have any plan to leverage the benefits of Government initiatives?
A. Our company can leverage the benefits of PLI and other Government initiatives if electronic products and components get manufactured in India. It will reduce our logistics and supply chain costs. Electronic Components are not yet manufactured in India. However, PCB manufacturing got a huge boost in the country through the PLI scheme. This in turn, also boosts our business and expands the market as well.
Q. What is your focus segment in this growing market?
A. We are closely observing the market trends and strategizing accordingly. Right now, 5G is upcoming, and the Internet of Things (IoT) is booming. Now, more than 1 trillion IoT devices are in the market and by 2030 that number is expected to reach 45 trillion across the globe. Considering the amount of data that is going to be generated, this market will grow multifold. Therefore, we are also planning to invest in those growing segments.
Our vision is to be an enabler for companies in the Indian electronic manufacturing industry by providing end-to-end support both in terms of demand creation and demand fulfillment goals.
Q. How do you nurture innovation in the electronics supply chain?
A. In the electronic supply chain, we have created different offerings for our customers. We offer Just In Time (JIT) service, entire kit, and development to a level where the board is almost production ready. Thus, we are trying to create value for our customers by nurturing innovative solutions. Our in-house team members take care of all requirements to make the boards ready for production
We would further like to nurture innovation by supporting the start-up ecosystem. We are in the process of establishing a touch base with startups and design houses. We handhold with startups and design houses to fulfill their component requirements, even at a very low minimum order quantity (MOQ), for prototype development.
Q. Being a responsible company in this ecosystem, what is your sustainability strategy?
A. We believe to work as a responsible company by implementing sustainability strategies. All our warehouses are facilitated with solar-based lighting and a complete rain-harvesting infrastructure. We are coming up with a new corporate office which will be a net zero building. So we are quite conscious to minimise our carbon footprint. Therefore, whenever we build our infrastructure, we try to go green. Thus, we practice sustainable.
Q. Please share some of your initiatives to make social impacts.
A. We always believe in giving back to society. We are associated with schools for underprivileged children. We support them in various ways. This Children’s Day, we built a “Computer Lab” in partnership with Millennium Developers for one of the schools we have been supporting since 2017 – Khivansara Patil School, (Krantiveer Chapekar Smarak Samiti), Pune. Our team members also teach schoolchildren about computer usage on a regular basis.
The entire Millennium team came together and collected books to share as a library with the schools we support. We are also planning to execute other large social impact initiatives.
