SME Times News Bureau | 06 Dec, 2018
In an exclusive
interview with SME Times, Rama N S, CEO, Electronic City Industries Association
(ELCIA) said the organisation helps Indian micro, small and medium enterprises
to design and develop innovative products and to increase business by
augmenting manufacture at relatively small costs.
Excerpts of the
interview...
ELCIA cluster was
formed to set up the common facility center (CFC) for MSMEs under CDP scheme of
GoI to help MSMEs to design and develop innovative products and to increase
business by augmenting manufacture. CFC center is now operational and is being used
by MSME companies. Small companies can use the facility for R&D and small
volume manufacture without much investments. This can encourage startups to
build innovative products. All the equipment is in place and members have
started using them. We believe the facilities will be used by many more to
bring out newer products and components
What is your view on the Indian
ESDM sector right now? How about R&D and product design scenario in India?
Rama N S: Design has always
been the strength of engineers in India. Chip manufacturers world over are
using services of our design houses and R&D. However, manufacturing has
still not taken off to the extent that is required to meet the demand and
contain imports of electronics which is expected to exceed oil imports. We
understand projects are under construction and they will take some time.
Considering low/no component base in India, design and development of niche
products are key value adds as of now. There is an urgent need for investments
in ESDM sector for large scale manufacture and support from Government to get
the industry on track. Niche products with great technical features need better
appearance and appeal .
What will be
the motive of the ELCIA cluster and how does it aim to fulfill it?
Rama N S: Electronics City
Association was formed in 1992 as the members wanted to come together to get
some basic infrastructure like streetlight, roads, water & security that
were lacking. The idea was to seek the government attention to improve the
condition of the Hosur Road and other infrastructure essential for business and
people. ELCIA has earlier addressed the infrastructure requirements of its
members. Now that ELCITA (Electronics city Industrial Township Authority) is
responsible for Township management, ELCIA focuses on interaction with
government, business related support to members and skill development.
ELCIA cluster was
formed to set up the common facility center (CFC) for MSMEs under CDP scheme of
GoI to help MSMEs to design and develop innovative products and to increase
business by augmenting manufacture. CFC center is now operational and is being used
by MSME companies. Small companies can use the facility for R&D and small
volume manufacture without much investments. This can encourage startups to
build innovative products. All the equipment is in place and members have
started using them. We believe the facilities will be used by many more to
bring out newer products and components
What roles are
the ELCIA members playing in this major initiative?
Rama N S: ELCIA is acting as
the bridge between the governments and the companies as it is not possible for
individual companies to go to the government and resolve issues or get
subsidies or implement policies. So we collectively are representing all our
members of ELCIA and working on policies and interacting with the government.
Creating awareness among members regarding Govt policies and supporting in
implementation is being done by ELCIA.
Is this aimed
only towards ESDM companies?
Rama N S: Not necessarily.
Though this has the capability of design and manufacture of electronics
products, it can be used for mechanical parts, environmental testing,
packaging…. Just as an example, water
maters, sheet metal items, aerospace parts, poles for street lights can be
manufactured in this facility. Today most of the products require electronics
and communication components and ELCIA cluster common facility center can cater
for such requirements. We believe this will inspire entrepreneurs to come up
with innovative IoT products that use multiple engineering disciplines. This
facility can be used by any one who wants to build a new product or augment
their production facility
Process for
applying for this facility? What cost/expense do they have to bear?
Rama N S: We encourage and
welcome everyone to use this facility. Details of the facility is available on
Cluster website. As of for now, majority of the users know about the cluster as
they are based inside the Electronics City. Such companies approach cluster
with request for quotation for using the facility after which they place the
order. Companies can bring their design, raw materials and take end products.
Cost is computed based on machine / equipment usage and manpower
requirement.
How do you
plan to promote this scheme further and reach out to people who are not yet
aware if this scheme?
Rama N S: We have completed
the installation of facilities and machine shop is in operation for a year. We
update our capabilities on our website, newsletters communicate to our members
through mails. We are actively
participating in exhibitions across the country. Being the first electronics
cluster, Government is also helping us in creating awareness by sending
interested industrialists. Our members promote this facility through their
networks. Our members who are members of other associations like Clik, Kassia,
CII also have opportunity to communicate to their network. While we are making
efforts to create awareness, media channels can also publish the availability
of CFC and help MSMEs/ startups. We will do much more to ensure this state of
the art facility is effectively used by industry.
Will you help
MSMEs get proper certifications for their products?
Rama N S: Certifying
products is planned and it requires the facility to stabilize and acquire both
experience and additional equipment. We have environmental testing facility
which helps in a testing of the products.
Will you have
any handholding to help the companies manufacture the product or do they get
access to the machineries for a certain period of time?
Rama N S: We do have our own
operators at the CFC but many a times, companies bring their experts to get the
job done. This cluster facility helps
members to network and share best practices and learn some secret sauces from
each other. Cluster members have the capability to handhold new companies/startups.
When a company has developed a product, we believe that they know the process
much better.
Any plans to
provide training for the MSMEs?
Rama N S: Skilled manpower
is critical to success of MSMEs. While big companies have training departments,
MSMEs require fewer people to be trained resulting higher overhead costs.
Though Govt has announced good policies for skill development, implementation
is still a challenge. We believe training and skilling is required at all
levels. ELCIA has already started providing training for MSME companies and
aspires to be a professional training provider. It has a collaborative approach
and is partnering with GIZ, Bosch who have some of the best training
implementation experience. Partnering with CII and other associations will
enable us to network with companies in other spaces. ELCIA will use cluster for
imparting generic hands on training to apprentices. Vision is to provide
training to all employees right from entry to senior management both in content
and soft skills with emphasis on industry requirement and on the job training
How do you
foresee this initiative shaping the future of the Indian electronics industry?
Rama N S: Indeed it's a
great initiative by the Govt of India and Govt of Karnataka and we feel that
such facility needs to come up in many more places across the country. The
requirement of electronics is huge in the country and the demand is
continuously increasing. While such common facility centers can pave way for
niche/innovative products, bigger and faster investments are required to reduce
the import bill.
MSMEs have a great
role to play in designing and manufacturing the niche electronics products.
Having such shared facility will help them manufacture the products at
reasonable cost as in general the cost of investment in the Indian
manufacturing market is very high. This high cost can dissuade many to shelve
their ideas or get into financial troubles. In view of this we believe this is
a stepping stone for the ESDM manufacturing in the country.
What is your
funding model? Who are the member organizations in the ELCIA cluster now?
Rama N S: The investment for
the machineries is close of 14.5 crores. GoI and GoK have contributed a grant
of 70% and 15% respectively. ELCIA and ELCIA cluster members have contributed
the balance 15% while building is being provided by ELCIA.
ELCIA cluster has
around 34 MSME member companies. Few among them are – Radel, Synthesis, Bhavani
Industries, Syscon Calibration, TESCOM, VXL, HICAL, Customised technologies,
Konar… and many more.
Tell us about
the government's (central & state) contribution to push this initiative
forward further?
Rama N S: The government is
indeed doing a great job to promote such initiative and for the next 5 years
cluster operations will be monitored. Gaining confidence from the first few
clusters as pilot, many more clusters are likely to be approved. Government of
Karnataka has also come up with policy for MSME cluster funding with 80%
participation. We are sure they will refine the policies further and expedite
implementation of such facilities across India to cater to manufacture of all
types of products and services.