In addition to services, we should become product nation: HCL co-founder

Ajai Chowdhry tells that India's strength is in design but it is used by global companies to develop their products in India, which needs to change

Ajai Chowdhry, co-founder, HCL (Hindustan Computers Ltd), set up the EPIC Foundation in 2021, a not-for-profit organisation, to make India a “product nation” in electronics. In a conversation in Kolkata, the chairman of the Mission Governing Board of the National Quantum Mission of India and member of the Advisory Board of India Semiconductor Mission, tells Ishita Ayan Dutt India’s strength is in design but it is used by global companies to develop their products in India, which needs to change. Edited excerpts:

   

A new semiconductor package is expected. What is the likely outlay?

 

The Ministry of Electronics should be able to get sanction on Phase II in the next few months. All the parties are ready.

 

Maharashtra will have one silicon fab, Uttar Pradesh will have two, and there will be one small fab in Karnataka and one in Odisha. All these proposals are on the table. The good news is, there is a lot of interest.The first phase was $10 billion, and the second will be nearly the same.

 

In addition to the huge amount of money taxpayers are paying for setting up these plants, state governments are also participating. Many state governments have come up with semiconductor policies. In a manner, close to 70 per cent of the capex will be paid by taxpayers. So we are well on our way to creating a semiconductor programme.

 

The missing piece is the front-end. You will have a lot of these plants coming up in the next four years. But who will be the customer? Exports are not easy because every country is putting up fabs.

 

If we don’t create India as an “electronic product” nation and we do not design products here, we will continue to import from China. There is too much dependence on China already.

   

What is your suggestion?

 

A task force has been created to look at this. We have created a detailed plan where we have said these are the 40 products India needs and we should design and make in India. Value capture in electronics happens in design and branding.

 

India’s strength is in design. We have huge design capability sitting all over the country, including Kolkata. But we don’t use it. It’s used by global companies to develop their products in India. This needs to change.

 

What we have suggested to the government is that we should create an incentive scheme and ask companies and startups to make products in India. And they should be funded by the government. We have given this scheme to the government and asked for Rs 30,000 crore to be set aside for this. Unless we spend this Rs 30,000 crore, the $20 billion will go to waste.

   

The outlay for the National Quantum Mission is Rs 6,000 crore. On a global scale, is it enough?

 

It’s huge. If we look at PPP (purchasing power parity), then the amount is very large. At this moment, the government is saying, this is just Phase I, like the semiconductor mission.

   

Has India missed the manufacturing bus?

 

Manufacturing is happening in a big way. But it is not value addition. To add value, you have to design in India.

   

In September, India and the US reached an agreement to explore semiconductor supply-chain opportunities. Do you think the Trump administration will follow through with it?

 

The world has changed; every country wants to do things on its own. The multipolar world is dead.

 

We will have good relations with the United States (US). But the US under Donald Trump will look after its own interests.

   

Are you advising the West Bengal government on semiconductor policy?

 

I want them to do a product policy, not a semiconductor policy. What I am suggesting to the state government is creating five to six centres of excellence for product design around universities.

 

Till yesterday, the world was all about services. The world is now about products. The time has come for us to do products in addition to services and we should become a product nation.

   

Research and papers from India compared to China have been low. Your thoughts.

 

We must invest more in research and development. That is why I am asking the government to give funding to people to design in India.