By Rebika Singam
The 35th annual presentation ceremony for the ELCINA-EFY Awards for ‘Excellence in Electronics Hardware Manufacturing and Services’ for 2009-10 was held on September 24, 2010, at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. To take the awards to a new height, ELCINA (Electronic Industries Association of India) has partnered with the Electronics For You (EFY) Group from this year. The ELCINA Awards have, therefore, been rechristened the ELCINA-EFY Awards.
R Chandrashekhar, secretary, Department of Telecommunication (DoT), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (IT), was the honourable chief guest for the evening. Various representatives from the electronics and hardware manufacturing industry attended the ceremony. Every year, the awards are given to recognise extraordinary achievements in the field of exports, R&D, quality, environment management, business excellence and entrepreneurial excellence.
This year’s prestigious ‘Electronics Man of the Year’ Award went to Ajai Chowdhry, chairman and CEO of HCL Infosystems Ltd, in recognition of his invaluable contribution to the growth of the IT manufacturing sector. In addition to a number of small and medium enterprises, the winners included leading Indian and global companies such as BEL, which was honoured for its excellent performance in the ‘Environment Management’ and ‘Quality’ categories (for which HCL won the 2nd Prize); and Jabil Circuit India and Epcos India for excellence in ‘Exports’. Vishay Components India, Pune, and Elcoteq Electronics India, Bengaluru, topped the ‘Business Excellence’ category.
Speaking on the occasion, Chandrashekhar mentioned five key factors to be focused on for the Indian electronics hardware manufacturing industry to reach a target of Rs 400 billion by 2020. These are:
- To set up a strong components manufacturing industry, which should take on even the designing of products. There should be incentives for firms to establish a manufacturing facility in India.
- To manufacture products that are highly in demand.
- To set up a facility to support the entire manufacturing chain, including design, information technology (IT), patent filing and R&D.
- To set up an electronics mission to correct the imbalances within the government departments.
- To formulate encouraging policies in areas that are in demand in order to encourage manufacturers.
“These measures are expected to stimulate the demand for electronics hardware, and also encourage SMEs and entrepreneurs to boost the manufacture of high-tech electronic products in India, so that the electronics industry achieves the target of a market size of Rs 400 billion by 2020,” said Chandrashekhar.
Robert D John, president, ELCINA, and CEO of Amphenol Interconnect India, said in his welcome speech,”The Association believes that the government and the industry need to work together to stimulate manufacturing and catalyse an IT/electronics boom that can contribute significantly to the development of India. ELCINA persistently works to facilitate changes that would strengthen India’s electronics and IT manufacturing base to make it a leader on the world electronics map and also meet its own surging demand for electronics.”
“The ELCINA Awards, the first of its kind in India, are to encourage and enhance competitiveness in cost, product quality and technical upgradation to match up to global competitiveness under a zero duty regime, and to bridge the gaps in electronics manufacturing industry,”he added. John also talked about the efforts needed to boost the Indian electronics industry, so that the demand for electronics hardware in the country reaches US$ 125 billion by 2014 and grows to US$ 400 billion by 2020.
Commenting on the ELCINA-EFY Awards partnership, Ramesh Chopra, managing director, EFY Group, said, “Platforms such as the ELCINA Awards were vital to promote excellence and to benchmark local manufacturing with the best, globally. EFY, which had served the electronics community since the last four decades, has been looking forward to contributing to this cause and saw immense synergy in this association.”
ELCINA was the first organisation in India to institute annual awards for excellence in electronics manufacturing, way back in 1976. These awards recognise outstanding achievements of electronics and IT manufacturing companies in India. Through these awards, ELCINA achieves its objective of encouraging the industry to achieve the highest performance standards in critical attributes and benchmarks them with global leaders.
It was also announced at the event that Robert John had been re-elected as the president of ELCINA for the year 2010-11. John headed the association in 2009-10, and has been on the ELCINA’s executive committee for a number of years.
The ELCINA-EFY Awards for Excellence in Electronics Hardware Manufacturing and Services were presented for outstanding achievements in the following categories: exports, quality, environment management, research and development, business excellence, entrepreneurial excellence, and to the ‘Electronics Man of the Year’.
The awardees are:
Exports (large scale)
First prize: Jabil Circuits India Pvt Ltd, Ranjangaon (Pune)
Second prize: Epcos India Pvt Ltd (Nashik)
Certificate of merit: Globe Capacitors Ltd, Faridabad
Exports (small and medium scale)
First prize: Sahasra Electronics Ltd, Noida
Second prize: Linkwell Telesystems Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad
Quality (above Rs 200 million)
First prize: Bharat Electronics, Bengaluru
Second prize: HCL Infosystems Ltd, Noida
Certificate of merit: Jabil Circuit India Pvt Ltd, Ranjangaon, Pune
Environment Management
First prize: Bharat Electronics, Bengaluru
Second prize: HCL Infosystems Ltd, Noida
Certificate of merit: Deki Electronics Ltd, Noida
Research and Development
First prize: Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd, Gurgaon
Second prize: Deki Electronics Ltd, Noida
Certificates of merit: Bharat Electronics, Bengaluru and SLN Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru
Business Excellence
First prize: Vishay Components India Pvt Ltd, Pune
Second prize: Elcoteq Electronics (India) Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru
Certificates of merit: Teknic Electromeconics Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru and Kavveri Telecom Products, Bengaluru
Entrepreneurial Excellence
First prize: Mukesh Arora and Rajeev Venkat, Teracom Ltd, Noida
Second prize: Shivkumar Reddy, Kavveri Telecom Products Ltd, Bengaluru
Certificate of merit: Amrit Manwani, Sahasra Electronics Pvt Ltd, Noida
Electronics Man of the Year was awarded to Ajai Chowdhry, chairman and CEO, HCL Infosystems Ltd, Noida for his pioneering efforts to steer HCL from a garage startup founded in 1976 to a Rs 250 billion global presence today.
