'India now a semiconductor design destination'

With the Indian semiconductor market crossing the $1 billion mark according to the first-ever industry report, India is poised to become a major player in this domain.
Biswadip (Bobby) Mitra, managing director, Texas Instruments (India) and president, VLSI Society of India, talks to Sufia Tippu about this changing landscape:
What are the trends that will drive the semiconductor market in India?
Communications and entertainment.These will transform our country's future. Mobile communication can be the single-most important driver to increase the standard of living of our rural population.
And, entertainment?
The entertainment industry is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 20 per cent and is expected to reach $20 billion by 2008. While music and video will be key drivers for this industry in India, the emergence of digital cinema across the country is going to fuel the growth.
What would be the other key segments?
Industrial, medical imaging, consumer, computing, defence and automotive are other key market segments that will see significant growth in semi-conductor consumption in India.
The industrial segment, for example, is propelled today by the conversion to electronic and tamper-proof energy meters, increased and unique power supply needs and growth in industrial control and automation.
What is the state of electronic product manufacturing in India?
This landscape is undergoing a positive transformation. Electronic manufacturing companies in India are active in building products for India, as well as for the world market. Several leading OEMs have begun manufacturing products in India.
What is TI's role in creating the semiconductor ecosystem in India?
We have pioneered the growth of an ecosystem in the semi-conductor and now electronics space. We have been working with about 500 Indian universities in digital signal processing and analog as well with multiple firms in design services, IP (Internet Protocol) and testing over the years.
What is the status of VLSI (very large scale integration) designs in India?
India is an established semiconductor design destination in the world. More than 130 companies are engaged in VLSI design which has over 100,000 transistors on a chip and embedded systems/software related activities in India.
Companies like us have been developing innovative products for our customers worldwide using the most advanced process technologies and we at TI India have the highest number of patents in the country over the years.