Pakistan could become IT leader: US diplomat

[Contrarian]

Neo when you talk about Offshoring are you referring to business process outsourcing such as voice based services and financial data processing or are you referring to outsourcing of IT infrastructure, design and software development as both are distinctly different. For the former training existing graduates and upgrading their skills shall be enough but for the latter the scenario is not so simple. South India is the hub of IT based infrastucture, design and development services, during the IT revolution we were able scale up something that was essential ie our educational infrastructure. For two decades now we have scaled up engineering institutes like anything. Take Tamilnadu alone, here within last two decades we have established more then 250 private engineering institutions giving an cobined output of more than 60000 engineers annualy , the same holds true for Andhra and Karnataka. For It services copporates like Infy, TCS, CTS their raw materials are Human resources and they need them in large quantity, unless you are able to scale up your technical educational facilities to the scale I had mentioned it will be very difficult to attract IT development investment as it requires huge engineering pool .

Cheers

Yep for BPO's for voice based services and data processing North India is the destination. For IT infrastructure, design and development, its South India.

 

[Energon]

India however needs to stop relying only on software and venture into hardware production. But first someone needs to make a big investment into a state of the art semiconductor R&D and production facility.

 

[Vinod2070]

India however needs to stop relying only on software and venture into hardware production. But first someone needs to make a big investment into a state of the art semiconductor R&D and production facility.

There are investments to the tune of 15 billion dollars in the pipeline just in the chip manufacturing/MRO sector in Hyderabad only. I believe a large part of that is in the solar cells but large investments are also planned in the silicon chip manufacturing.

Given the current (and potential) size of the Indian market, its a matter of time before India becomes a big player even in the hardware sector.

 

[Goodperson]

India got the advantage to take leap in IT field due to Y2K issue as lots of Software jobs were outsourced to India.

 

[Vinod2070]

That was one of the triggers among many others. But an important one.

 

[Contrarian]

India however needs to stop relying only on software and venture into hardware production. But first someone needs to make a big investment into a state of the art semiconductor R&D and production facility.

India is already an established and major player in semiconductor R&D and Chip Designing. A lot of work is done in India with labs in South India. Only semiconductor manufacturing is not done in India.

There is already a semiconductor policy in India. The govt is willing to bear 25% of the capital costs, give tax free land, etc, etc.
Every semiconductor fabrication plant costs a MINIMUM of $4 billion!

And there are already a couple of companies who have submitted their proposals. Most of them as said above pertained to solar cells, etc, but one company, i forget the name(SemIndia i think) has submitted proposal for a semiconductor chip fab plant. This company will set it up and manufacture AMD's chips. India has already approached Intel for this, but they declined and i think opened one up in Phillipines. However, they did say it is possible to set one up in the future.

 

[Contrarian]

India unlikely to have edge with semiconductor policy

India may not have got the timing right about nurturing two or three semiconductor plants even as the government finally has a policy that it hopes could put the country on the world map of semiconductor (wafer fab) manufacturing.

The process of joining the ranks of countries such as Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore and the US has already begun with the government expecting a $6-10 billion investment.

The $3 billion SemIndia project is already underway and Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing has submitted its $4 billion proposal that awaits the Centre's nod. But most analysts and some industry players are wondering whether government incentives alone will suffice.

"India needs around two to three fabs to meet the local demand. The problem is there could be a supply overcapacity by the time these fabs start production," says Ganesh Ramamoorthy, principal analyst, Gartner.

"The move (of notifying the policy) is definitely going to help high-end manufacturing. However, technology becomes obsolete at a very fast pace and the gestation period to set up a fab is long," says Y S Sashidhar, vice president, Frost & Sullivan (India).

By the time the fabs come up (2009-10), technology would have moved on. For instance, most of the projects announced about 130 nm (nanometer) technologies to begin with.

This technology will help in developing chips for set-top boxes, micro controllers, logic devices, discrete devices, and so on but not for mobile phone or memory chips (which account for 40 to 50 per cent of the total semiconductor market) that require better technologies.

"The problem is that by the time the fab plants in India start production, these high-tech devices will require more sophisticated technology (say 60 nm or 45 nm technologies)," says an expert. Only SemIndia is currently talking about 90 and 60 nm technologies for its second phase of production. Besides, the lower the chip size, the higher the investment.

However, there's still a logic in having a fab plant in India.

Chip designing, which India excels in, accounts for around 30 per cent of the total high-tech manufacturing revenues.

Assembling, testing, marking, packing and chip manufacturing account for the remaining 70 per cent, which India loses out on.

While there's a negligible duty on import of semiconductor chips, India "can still reduce its input bill by setting up fabs". Setting up a semiconductor plant is expected to create a semiconductor "eco-system", which in turn will help Indian companies move up the global value chain and meet the local demand.

The Indian Semiconductor Association projects India's consumption of electronic equipments to touch $363 billion by 2015, up from $28.2 billion in 2005, at a compound annual growth rate of 30 per cent (Frost & Sullivan figures).

Of this, the market for the semiconductor industry is expected to be around $36.3 billion. ISA maintains that the semiconductor industry would address not only the home market, but also the global one, creating an electronics manufacturing industry in India of $100 billion in 10 years.

SemIndia, the company setting up a $3-billion chip fab in Hyderabad, has said there will be enough local demand since India's GDP is growing at over 8 per cent.

A company spokesperson declined to comment on the order book position. However, sources say companies have plans to source chips from SemIndia and "the current figure is around $500 million".

Industry experts also note that much depends on contracts too. Major fab players like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company have contracts for a minimum period of two years. TSMC recently opened an office in Bangalore to bolster its efforts. Indian semiconductor plants will have to compete with the global majors for a decent market share.

Meanwhile, even as the government plans to "reopen negotiations with Intel and other companies to explore possibilities of them setting up units in the country", Texas Instruments has stated it will not set up a semiconductor manufacturing plant in India.

So has NXP Semiconductors, which says it has no "immediate plans", according to Ashok Chandak, sales and marketing director, NXP Semiconductors India. "In terms of the local demand, we are still not there. The numbers (with regard to demand) projected appear steep," says Chandak.

Intel, the world's largest chip manufacturer, had been waiting for the semiconductor policy to take decisions on its India plans and had in the meantime selected Vietnam for a facility. Recently, it even set up its first Asian plant in China. The government is hopeful that Intel will return.

India unlikely to have edge:semiconductor policy

 

[Always Neutral]

Pakistan can definately do it. The brains are there no doubt.

Regards

 

[indiapakistanfriendship]

Pakistan can definately do it. The brains are there no doubt.

AN refer to my previos post in this thread. The issue is not whether Pakistan has brains or not ? they sure do have a lot of it as do every other country worth its salt. The main problem Pakistan will face is ramping up human resources especially if they plan to venture in IT design, development and inratructure business. It requires humungous amount of technical resource which needs scaling up of educational institutes like anything, My state Tamilnadu alone produces nearly 60,000 engineers per year and yet the IT indutry says it is not enough, its a mad rush for human resources. Do you know who personally flew over here and oversaw TCS's campus recruitment drive here in my campus its CEO Ramadorai himself. This shows the demand for rawmaterials ie Human resources in this case. Pakistan will have to do a lot in this case. It needs to invest in private engineering institutes like anything find enginnering graduates to staff them ...

Cheers

 

[Contrarian]

Pakistan can definately do it. The brains are there no doubt.

Regards

Practically any country can do it mate. Every country has the potential, its all about who harvests it properly.

Pakistan can surely do it, its my belief that if Pakistan actually got out of its own created webs and problems it would be a star performer.

 

[indiapakistanfriendship]

Practically any country can do it mate. Every country has the potential, its all about who harvests it properly.

Pakistan can surely do it, its my belief that if Pakistan actually got out of its own created webs and problems it would be a star performer.

I think It will be difficult for Pakistan to replicate the Indian model of IT design and devlopment, because it requires scale. From Neo's post I learn that there are 100,000 IT educated personell in Pakistan, the number may sound huge but it is very low and would not be enough to supply for one year alone.

That said however Pakistan need not go the Indian route in the first place, the trick here is to achieve neiche in certain areas of software development or chip design or other hightech areas of computing. This can be easy as Pakistan has talented engineers who work in west , if the the government gives them enoughincentives and attracts them then this can be achieved realistically.