We Have To Move From Make in India To ‘Design & Make in India’: Ajay Chowdhry
It was a great moment for Epic Foundation Chairman and HCL Founder Ajay Chowdhry when he decided to quit DCM Data Products along with other five friends in the mid-1970s to start a computer company. Later Ajay Chowdhry and team made history with HCL and now he is pursuing his passion. Harnessing nearly 47 years experience, Ajay Chowdhry is still dreaming big on India becoming a semiconductor and electronics nation. In an interaction with N V Vijayakumar from TheNFAPost, Ajay Chowdhry explains how India is gearing up for its great moment in electronics manufacturing.
1. India is aspiring to be an electronics manufacturing hub. How do you review the government of India’s efforts in this regard?
Ans- Excellent. However, it encourages scale, which is good for jobs. India should become the design factory to the world, we should become the product factory to the world. And that’s where startups come in… Let’s seize this opportunity and make India a product nation.
2. Do you find India is adding value to electronics manufacturing? What structural changes should we make to achieve optimum level in this journey?
Ans – Value addition is very low. Need to add design and local buying of components for higher value addition. Our advantage is that we are damn good at software and now we need to do is combine our design-engineering capability with software capability. And all products today, whether you look at automobiles, or you look at air conditioner, or you look at a washing machine, any product, has a great combination of software – everywhere you will find AI (artificial intelligence) ML (machine learning) integrated into hardware.
3. How can India be a product nation so that our country will be the epicentre of electronics innovation?
Ans- China + 1 made Vietnam. We need to design and make products and reduce imports. India is a large market and has all the design / engineering capability.
4. Can you elaborate the current ‘Make-in-India’ initiative in Electronics manufacturing?
Ans – We need to move from “Make in India” to “Design & Make in India”.
5. Do you believe there is an urgency for India to set up semiconductor fabs? Do you feel the current policy framework of the government to attract companies in this space?
Ans – Absolutely, the current framework is excellent. Our incentives are the best in the world.
6. IP creation in the semiconductor and electronics sector is happening in India. How can we further enhance it?
Ans- IP creation is mainly with GCC’s (Global). We need to create many startups too who will create IP.
7. You are still hanging on to your belief around 30 years dreaming India to be in the forefront of electronics manufacturing. What is driving you to be so optimistic in this dream?
Ans – As Napoleon said, ‘Victory belongs to the most persevering’. I strongly believe it will happen!
8. What is your advice to young entrepreneurs who are entering the electronics / semiconductor sector?
Ans – This is the next big area for growth. Software moved from services to products. Here also manufacturing services will move towards product creation.
9. As AI is making a deep impact, including with Generative AI, as a country how India should approach it via a regulatory framework?
Ans- Yes, it is. Many jobs will go away. Many new ones will get created. We should seriously consider strong regulations.
10. Writing a book is really a fulfilling moment for any author. Can you elaborate a bit on your book and your experience while sharing its thoughts among youngsters?
Ans. When writing the book, I wanted it to be easy reading. And give many anecdotes and examples for youngsters to follow. I talk about A>R, where if you have the aspiration, resources will happen. So Just Aspire!! It is not relevant whether you are from a small city or a big town, if you have the aspiration, you can a achieve anything.
