Q&A session with Praveen Acharya
of KPIT Cummins Infosystems
By N. Srinivas
Bangalore, India: Recession might have brought down
the revenues of automotive electronics industry, but not
the investment in R&D. KPIT Cummins Infosystems, Indian
electronics design services company, with major stake in
automotive electronics area, is fully fuelled with expertise
in embedded software to serve all key areas of automotive
electronics. KPIT Cummins automotive customers include 13
of the top 15 automotive OEMs and the top 30 Tier 1 suppliers.
In the ongoing ISA Vision Summit (Feb 16-17 2009), I caught
up with Mr. Praveen Acharya VP, Semiconductor solutions
of KPIT Cummins to discuss on embedded software and general
electronics design opportunities in India.
Question: How is the global recession impacting
your business?
Answer: There is little slowdown in orders, pushing
the deal is bit harder, otherwise recession is forcing OEMs
to focus more on innovation, and outsourcing in R&D
is becoming priority to cut costs.
Question: Is there is any pressure on billing?
Answer: No.
Question: How do you foresee market opportunities
in Indian electric car market?
Answer: The electric car market has not yet reached
the production volumes of petrol/diesel cars, however we
are prepared to serve this market.
Question: Still much of India's defense technology
is not indigenously developed, giving a huge opportunity
for mission critical electronic technology providers. What
are your plans for this market?
Answer: Since we are in automotive electronics,
aerospace and defense is the next best domain. We are looking
out for opportunities and evaluating business value propositions
to offer services directly to Indian organizations and also
to other defense suppliers from whom India is buying complete
hardware.
Question: Indian embedded companies are not doing
that well in embedded software product market, what are
the issues involved in products market?
Answer: Identifying market opportunities is a major
issue; Indian companies are failing in establishing a proper
connection between demand and supply in products market.
Most of the designs are bottom-up type.
Question: Is technology change not an issue?
Answer: Technology change is now manageable by Indian
industry.
Question: Your thoughts on necessity of semiconductor
fab in India and the manufacturing ecosystem?
Answer: India needs semiconductor fab, if not a
45nm or lower, a fab with wider line width will itself supply
much of the semiconductor components to Indian hardware
industry. The price points won't be dictated with presence
of good local electronics manufacturing ecosystem. The entire
product life cycle can be managed in India.