Sam Pitroda urges electronics industry to take risk and start indigenous manufacturing
Government is sure that with the implementation of the manufacturing policy, the electronics industry will progress rapidly and will achieve higher value addition
The 37th ELCINA-EFY awards 2011-12 for the electronics industry were announced on September 27, 2012, in New Delhi. While Sanmina-SCI India Pvt Ltd won the first prize in the ‘Exports (large scale)’ category, Electronics Relays India Pvt Ltd won the first prize in the ‘Exports (small and medium scale)’ category. In ‘Quality’, Moser Baer India Ltd emerged as the first prize winner, followed by Sanmina-SCI. Dr Harish Hande, managing director, Selco India, was declared the ‘Electronics Man of the Year’. The first prize in ‘Business Excellence’ was won by NTL Electronics India Ltd, while Bharat Electronics Ltd bagged the first prize in ‘Environment Management’.
While presenting the awards, chief guest Dr Sam Pitroda, adviser to the Prime Minister on public information infrastructure and innovations, and the man behind the telecom revolution in India, raised his concerns about India’s increasing electronics imports. “Today, our electronics import bill surpasses our oil imports bill. We cannot afford to ignore indigenous manufacturing any more. For this, we need the required ecosystem and the growing local demand,” he said.
Dr Pitroda was, however, hopeful as he said, “A country of 1.2 billion people cannot ignore electronics and, therefore, there is no other alternative but to take up this challenge and build our own manufacturing base. The government has given us a good manufacturing policy, and is giving the required push to local industry, but now the industry has to come forward and take some risks in starting manufacturing. I believe the road ahead is tough but we need to walk on it if we need to build a new India.”
The guests of honour at the function were J Satyanarayana, IAS, secretary, DeitY, Government of India; Rajkumar Dhoot, MP (Rajya Sabha) and Dr Anup K Pujari, IAS, director general of foreign trade.
While encouraging the winners, J Satyanarayana said that the government was aware of the challenges faced by the electronics manufacturing sector and has initiated appropriate policy measures. “We are sure that with the implementation of these policies, the manufacturing sector will progress rapidly and will achieve higher value addition,” he added.
T Vasu, director, Tandon Group, and president of ELCINA, said, “The year 2012 could mark the beginning of a golden decade for electronics in India with growth in demand galloping at 20-22 per cent per annum and expected to exceed US$ 400 billion by 2020 from US$ 75 billion in 2011-12. The government and industry have worked together for the last three years to formulate an excellent Electronics Policy, which has been approved and could work very well to stimulate manufacturing and upgrade our capabilities—thus putting us on a growth path.”
ELCINA instituted these awards way back in 1976, and this was the 37th year in succession that the awards have been presented in recognition of excellence in electronics manufacturing. Through these awards, ELCINA achieves its objective of encouraging the industry to achieve the highest performance standards in critical attributes and to benchmark itself against global leaders.
Concluding the session, Ramesh Chopra, vice chairman, EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd, congratulated the winners and said, “EFY is happy to be associated with ELCINA for the prestigious ELCINA-EFY Awards. In 2010, ELCINA partnered with Electronics for You (EFY Group) to take ELCINA Awards to new heights. The objective of this alliance is to promote the awards, enhance awareness, make the awards ‘Greener’ by e-enabling the award process and augment their value for the industry. Both ELCINA and EFY were set up more than 40 years ago with the common objective of promoting the electronics industry in India, including electronics hardware manufacture and services.”
WINNERS OF ELCINA-EFY AWARDS FOR 2011-12
EXPORTS
Large scale
First: Sanmina-SCI India Pvt Ltd
Second: Vishay Components India Pvt Ltd
Third: EPCOS India Pvt Ltd
Certificate of Merit:Gruner India
Pvt Ltd
Small & medium scale
First: Electronic Relays India Pvt Ltd
QUALITY
First: Moser Baer India Ltd
Second: Sanmina-SCI India Pvt Ltd
Certificate of Merit: Elin Appliances Pvt Ltd
Certificate of Merit: AT & S India Pvt Ltd
ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT
First: Bharat Electronics Ltd
Second: Elin Appliances Pvt Ltd
Certificate of Merit: EPCOS India Pvt Ltd
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
First: Bharat Electronics Ltd
Second: Centre for Development of Telematics
Certificates of Merit: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd
Certificate of Merit: Teracom Limited
BUSINESS EXCELLENCE
First: NTL Electronics India Ltd and FIEM Industries Limited
Second: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd
Certificate of Merit: EOS Power India Pvt Ltd
ENTREPRENUERIAL EXCELLENCE
First: Kavveri Telecom Products Ltd
Second: Alcon Electronics Pvt Ltd
Certificate of Merit: Moser Baer Solar Ltd
ELECTRONICS MAN OF THE YEAR
Dr Harish Hande, managing director, SELCO India
—EB Bureau