India - Next Hardware-Manufacturing Hub?

India possesses the potential to emerge as an IT superpower undoubtedly. But one does harbor doubts about whether there are resources to utilize its potential.

With several big companies choosing India to set up manufacturing plant, the country is lately being labeled as the world's new IT hardware manufacturing hub. To encourage further such interest from global companies, the government too is chalking out a new policy for manufacturing of capital-intensive products like semiconductors, LCDs, storage devices and handsets. There are also several other areas to be taken care of.

To shed light on these and other related issues, the Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized a panel discussion on 'IT Hardware Manufacturing - Unleashing India's Manufacturing Potential' in Chennai on June 16, 2006. The event was co-hosted by SPEL Semiconductor.

India's manpower advantage could help the country compete with its South Asian counterparts. However, to stand on par with these countries it is necessary to focus on infrastructure and operational efficiency, said K S Vishwanathan.

"The best thing that India has to offer to the world is its people," said Jukka Lehtela of Nokia, which has recently set up a manufacturing plant near Chennai. However, he also remarked that the Indian government needed to put infrastructure in place before inviting companies to set up shop here.

Poornima Shenoy, who was representing the semiconductor industry in India, listed out challenges that this sector faced due to lack of infrastructure, government support besides issues like high cost of setting up fabs, and longer period to break even.

S Srinivasan emphasized on the need to fill the chasm between academics and the requirement of the IT sector. According to him, Indian government needed to follow the Taiwan example of creating synergy between chains of semiconductor product companies.

J B Shin of Samsung spoke about Samsung's business in India and its plans to bring Korea's strong technology to India before the audience was invited for their questions and remarks.