Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Business Wire India
The fourth edition of India Electronics Week (IEW) 2019, one of the largest global events to promote Indian electronic industry, started today at the Karnataka Trade Promotion Organization (KTPO) in Bengaluru. This year, the event is scheduled from February 26th – 28th, 2019 and brings four shows and conferences together which include: Electronics For You Expo, Test & Measurement India, IoTshow.in, EFY Conference and EmbedEXPO.
The three-day mega event is organised by Electronics For You (EFY) Group and is supported by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Electronics India and Digital India. The theme for this year’s IEW is “Driving Technology, Innovation & Investment for Smart Products”.
Ramesh Chopra, Founder and Chairman, EFY Group welcomed the dignitaries with his inaugural address. Looking at the ongoing technological evolution he said, “What’s interesting is that the journey between the initial phases of evolution took hundreds of years, but the journey after these allied with electronics happened within a few years. In fact, the last three transformations are happening almost simultaneously and electronics is playing a critical role.”
Chopra put emphasis on the fact that the upfront cost of manufacturing setups have come down significantly with the help of compact table-top machines, further complemented by rapid prototyping. He said, “To motivate small-scale manufacturing and setting up of full-fledged R&D labs, we have laid special emphasis on enrolling exhibitors who provide desktop manufacturing equipment and prototyping equipment”.
Realising the growing demand of additive manufacturing and rapid prototyping technology among engineering designers and manufacturers, this year’s IEW provided a platform to an array of exhibitors to come forward with their unique low-cost manufacturing equipment and make customers realise that low-cost manufacturing is no more a dream, but very much possible in the Indian context. These kinds of solutions can kickstart local manufacturing throughout the country and grandly strengthen the Make in India initiative.
Eminent exhibitors IEW mentioned like Bergen, Mechtronics and Vikams shared their views on rapid prototyping and low-cost manufacturing facilities. They mentioned that rapid prototyping is already available in India for PCB assembly but for semiconductor manufacturing there are just a handful of high-volume manufacturers, that too are Government bodies. Therefore, low-cost desktop manufacturing machines will help private players to Kickstart semiconductor manufacturing in India. According to them, the future is really bright for desktop manufacturing this can show the path towards a strong manufacturing ecosystem in India. They also indicated that the main motive for participation in IEW is to share necessary information with the Indian manufacturers about the technology that will help them to consider quality control, new product plans and compare how products were made earlier and how they are made now.
The IPC hand soldering contest also held at on the first day of IEW. T. N. Phanishayee, Consulting Faculty – MIT, IPC India said, “We are organizing this handholding competition from IPC India to encourage the operator/technician levels who are supporting their companies. Most of the times recognition is given to the higher-level personnel. This is a platform where operator level people can be recognized and awarded for their performance.”
The IoT will be another crucial focus area of the event as it brings forth the rapid growth of India’s IoT ecosystem by leaps and bounds. This year the co-located show, IoTShow.in brings along all players of the IoT ecosystem – OEMs, system integrators, communication partners, security partners, software developers as well as potential users – everyone under one roof. The idea is to unveil new ideas and innovations, understand more real-life problem areas and identify new opportunities of solution, deepen the communication among various solution providers and eventually, create a dense IoT environment.
The exhibition roster was filled with companies of all scales including heavyweight brands like Google, Microsoft, IBM, Intel etc as well as 46 start-ups based out of India all of whom showcased their variety of innovative solutions and services that can help transform businesses, cities, governance and lives. The presence of these many start-ups and exciting inventions was a symbol of the success of the Startup India and Digital India movement. It also showcases the massive potential that India holds in innovation.
The 3-day long event will feature conferences on the IoT and ESDM, workshops and sessions on latest technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), blockchain, cloud, fog and edge computing and M2M technologies, exhibitions of embedded systems, manufacturing machineries, innovative products and more. Participants can expect three days of deeper tech and business insights, opportunities to communicate with stalwarts and the who’s who of the industry, and finally, ideas to make lives smarter.
