BANGALORE, I
NDIA: The India Semiconductor Association (ISA) is committed to building and strengthening a semiconductor ecosystem in India. To encourage innovation in semiconductor research, ISA, in association with the VLSI Society of India (VSI) has instituted the Technovation Awards, which will be held in Bangalore on July 31, 2007.
In an interview with CIOL, Poornima Shenoy, president, India Semiconductor Association (ISA), talks about the concept of the Technovation Awards and what it aims to achieve. Excerpts from an interview:
CIOL: What is the idea behind and uniqueness about the ISA-VLSI Technovation Awards?
: India is expected to consume 11 percent of the global electronic equipment production by 2015, with its semiconductor market likely to be 6.5 percent of the global semiconductor market in 2015. This means a requirement of close to 800,000 VLSI and embedded SW engineering talent – a 10-fold increase, over the next eight years (Source: ISA,F&S Report 2006).
This also means that innovative approaches have to be taken in order to encourage participation in the semiconductor world from education and research perspectives. As an industry body, the ISA wants to promote and encourage the academic fraternity and reward role models.
Such a strategy from the Indian semiconductor industry will sustain efforts to promote and propagate semiconductor research in our academic institutions focused on R&D. This is the idea behind formulating the Technovation Awards.
Awards are not unique. However, it is the first time in India that an industry body is taking steps to recognize and reward research and developments in the semiconductor driven sector.
