By Dr Ajay Kumar, joint secretary, DeitY
Saturday, February 15, 2014: Communication and brand building is an important part of the effort to promote India as a destination for electronics system design and manufacturing. Shri Dewang Mehta, the effervescent first President of NASSCOM played that role admirably to put India on the world map in the IT sector. Electronics also needs a Dewang Mehta.
Industry associations have an important role to play in this regard. They are our brand ambassadors. They conduct fairs and conferences with both national and international participation. These events are opportunities which should be exploited to the maximum. Government has decided that the Electronics India logo of “Billion Needs Million Chips”, be allowed to be used by all those who share the goal of developing the objective of making India a hub for electronics system design and manufacturing. The logo could be the new common insignia for all efforts.
It has been decided to mark 2014 as “Made in India” year for electronics. AC Nielsen study, in 2013, found that electronics goods made in India are perceived as those of good quality. Companies manufacturing from India could use this logo to mark their products with this logo. This mark should become the mark of quality, a mark of “Made of India”.
Industry also has huge role to play in promoting brand of Electronics India. They do this by communicating to the world their own successes. Examples abound. Digital hearing aid developed by CDAC, Linear Accelerator (Linac) developed by SAMEER, Ethernet router developed by IIT Bombay, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) developed by ECIL, GPON by CDOT are some recent examples of amazing products developed and commercialized in India. There are many more. Then there are commercial success stories as well. SAMSUNG India in consumer electronics and mobile handsets, CENTUM in EMS, Bosch India in automotive electronics, ECIL in EVMs and strategic electronics for space and atomic energy, Tejas in telecom are among others. Videocon is household name in consumer electronics. Jabil manufactures Set Top Boxes for leading brand in US in India. This list is by no stretch exhaustive. Each of these companies is a brand ambassador of Electronics India with a big role to play.
Some of the initiatives which Government proposes to take up to promote
“Electronics India” brand include starting a media campaign across all types of media; allowing use of Electronics India logo by all interested; using social media for initiating online discussion on electronics system design and manufacturing among others. A corporate film is also proposed. Technology celebrities would be invited to endorse the campaign. Incredible India is a brand which has been developed and nurtured by India tourism. This could be a good model to emulate. Brand building is a slow and arduous work. We need to work on it relentlessly.
We look forward to more ideas and partners for promoting brand Electronics India: Billion needs Million chips. Please feel free to send your suggestions to me at [email protected] or to Kapil at [email protected]
