Semiconductor companies realizing the potential of Indian SMEs in non-metros

There are more than 4000 towns in India, in this atleast 400 are big towns otherwise called small cities. They have some type of small scale industries related to electronics engineering. Much of the companies in these cities work in the industrial electronics domain. Sometimes even to buy a discrete semiconductor component, most of these have to buy from the nearby metro city in their region. Leading semiconductor companies neglected these areas because of the low volumes order they place. For these companies and for the semiconductor vendors, Internet came as a boon to provide every piece of design information through net and also do online ordering. Due to recession, now the semiconductor vendors are waking up to serve better to such non-metro urban market in India.

In the recently held Freescale Technology Forum, most of small companies who have displayed their products are from Cities like Hubli, Mysore, Belgaum etc. These are tier-2 cities of Karnataka, where anybody can find little pockets of electronic engineering companies. One of the exhibitor at the forum said, Freescale has provided them with the quality support in all stages of product design, that shows the level of effort companies like Freescale putting-on in tapping the Indian Semiconductor market.

The products displayed by these companies at the Freescale technology forum were no-way less important. They are tailored exclusively for Indian market. Few products to name are electronic energy meter, solar inverter, and wireless modules. All these products are for India-wide use and for rural market also.

There was a recent media report saying Texas Instruments is setting up sales and support office in tier-2 cities such as Coimbatore, Nashik, Gurgaon, Pune and Chandigarh. Cities named here are anyway are of metro class, though they may lack international airport but have facilities close to metro cities.

The real challenge for semiconductor industry is in providing logistical and technical support to the companies located in cities where there is no fully operational domestic air-port.