The Indian semiconductor dream needs to include its ever-growing and promising startup eco-systems in its policy initiatives. However, the challenges are formidable and much needs to be done before we harness the start-ups to join hands and deliver. In this regard Dr. Nandimath Omprakash V, Professor of Law at National Law School of India University and ITP Fellow (working in the area of Global Semiconductor supply-chain and security) met Kannan Srinivasagam for a brief interview. Kannan is a technology and product executive with diverse and extensive experience of more than 25 years in engineering, business development, sales and marketing. To be precise Kannan is very household name as an angel investor in the Semiconductor market eyeing particularly for the opportunities in the startup space. He himself runs Embedded Edge AI a very successful and promising startup. He can be reached at kannan@wgtech.ai
The Indian semiconductor dream needs to include its ever-growing and promising startup eco-systems in its policy initiatives. However, the challenges are formidable and much needs to be done before we harness the start-ups to join hands and deliver. In this regard Dr. Nandimath Omprakash V, Professor of Law at National Law School of India University and ITP Fellow (working in the area of Global Semiconductor supply-chain and security) met Kannan Srinivasagam for a brief interview. Kannan is a technology and product executive with diverse and extensive experience of more than 25 years in engineering, business development, sales and marketing. To be precise Kannan is very household name as an angel investor in the Semiconductor market eyeing particularly for the opportunities in the startup space. He himself runs Embedded Edge AI a very successful and promising startup. He can be reached at kannan@wgtech.ai
Prof. Nandimath : Sir, at the very outset let me thank you for your time and agreeing to share your thoughts. There can’t be a better hands-on person I can think of to deal with this subject. You are well-known as an ‘angel investor’ in the semiconductor market. Can you please say something more about your investment treaties?
Mr. Kannan Srinivasagam: The semiconductor ecosystem is set up and poised for a good long-term growth especially in India. My investments are primarily to enable small and mid-size companies to differentiate and scale. This includes bringing in investments through external funds, particularly for startups to enable IP creation to build products with differentiation for the Indian market. One of the aspects of growth for semiconductors is to enable them to build end-systems with software and appropriate hardware. This is another part of my investment enabling AI (Artificial Intelligence) solutions specific to Indian market requirements for e.g. Agriculture, Industrial and Automotive. Specific to Agriculture, infusing AI into farm automation including plant disease prediction using drone mapping, optimal use of water resources are a specific area which I am currently investing. More than ever, the entire technology value chain, down to the end user, depends on the semiconductor industry IP and innovation to provide the solutions necessary for all technologies to reach their full potential.
Prof. Nandimath : You also have a start-up of your own, by the name WG Tech Solutions Private Limited in the area of Embedded Edge AI Computing — can you say something about this venture to our readers?
Mr. Kannan Srinivasagam: Edge computing brings AI directly to the IOT devices, processing data where it’s captured — instead of in the cloud or data centre. This speeds up the AI pipeline for real-time decision-making and autonomous machines. Artificial intelligence used to be constrained only to cloud linked devices. With AI models now being enabled from 32-bit CPUs all the way to high-end processors, computing at the edge has vastly improved latency (response time), security and power (critical especially for battery operated applications). Edge AI computing is poised to grow at a rate of 23% CAGR over the next 5 years. WG Tech Solutions currently helps our customers to benefit from giving sight, sound and speech to their edge devices. As edge AI scales, the ecosystem is navigating growing software complexity and ever-increasing demand for AI performance-optimizing power. This requires a broad knowledge of variety of semiconductor devices which are available with optimal power/performance requirements for a specific use case along with the capability to do software, firmware and, if required integration into mobile app for monitoring. This is exactly where WG Tech Solutions comes in with our expertise.
Prof. Nandimath: The general feeling is that the semiconductor business needs astronomical investments, which takes it out of the reach of ‘start-ups’ and aspirational young entrepreneurs — how do you react to this?
Mr. Kannan Srinivasagam: Yes, that is true that semiconductor ecosystem investment requires astronomical capital investments. From a startup standpoint, there are aspects which can be worked on from the service side, as well as developing IP cores or end chip designs which address specific issues in the end markets. A recent example of this would be in data centres where there is an issue with memory access becoming a bottleneck. There are multiple ways being investigated to increase memory access speeds with new interface protocols as well as doing in-memory computing where memory access times are drastically reduced improving performance. There are more examples of IP’s like this (involving performance, power usage, etc.) which can be developed, and which can be integrated into end chip designs. One other area where startups and young aspirants can contribute is building the end systems using semiconductor chips and developing the software and firmware for the system. This in turn, helps grow the market for semiconductor usage and content within the Indian ecosystem.
Prof. Nandimath: Dream is to become the global hub of semiconductors in the world. Towards this end, we even have the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM). How does this policy encourage the start-up’s growth in the space? Or do you think the Mission needs to be fine-tuned to harness its focus upon the startups?
Mr. Kannan Srinivasagam: The applicable aspect in the India Semiconductor Mission for startups would be the Design Linked Initiative (DLI scheme) which I believe some companies have applied and some have been enabled as well. I have no specific comment here as I am not using this scheme but a link between the actual semiconductor schemes being offered and linking them to a production linked incentive to manufacture using the semiconductors manufactured or designed locally would be a good thing to help the usage of the local supply chain. Also in this regard, incentivizing not only the VLSI design and IP cores related to end markets but also system-level IP cores (incorporating hardware, software and firmware) solving specific issues in the Indian market would be a great add-on to help with this mission. This provides an innovation pipeline for creating robust end products which can be used for local and export markets. Strong IP protection needs to be enabled for any export market opportunities.
Prof. Nandimath: India dreams of becoming the third-largest economy in the world; and the same will not be possible unless we attempt to grow our semiconductor capabilities. What do you think can be done by the policy practitioners (particularly in the government) to make this possible?
Mr. Kannan Srinivasagam: Growing semiconductor capabilities requires capital investments which governments and large corporations should certainly bring in to build the ecosystem. A vibrant ecosystem is built when there is seamless movement and availability of resources (both human capital and the proper tools) to innovate. There is a lot which can be done from a human talent standpoint. The semiconductor ecosystem has a lot of job opportunities under various levels of capabilities. Providing India’s young talent access to these opportunities through proper training and mentoring is a key item still to be addressed. This should effectively begin at the college level (3rd year of a technical degree would be a good start). From a tool’s availability standpoint, the availability of evaluation boards and demonstration boards locally to build and innovate is lacking. Currently, most of the available boards are from Chinese SOCs and controllers. We need to be able to have startups get the proper tools to innovate by reducing customs timelines, taxes especially for these evaluation boards.
Prof. Nandimath: I hear many say that the Indian Export-Import framework needs to be re-aligned to help the semiconductor supply chain, particularly keeping in mind the startups. How do you suggest a few reforms in this regard, as a person who is working at the ground-level?
Mr. Kannan Srinivasagam: As mentioned previously, the availability of tools to innovate for startups is lacking. One example of that is trying to import an evaluation or demo board for a high-quality solution is hard with custom duties and timelines, taxes putting a burden especially for startups. Any incentives along these lines would be helpful. Also, if a startup invests and is able to build a export framework for an end-product (software, hardware or a combined product), incentives in terms of loans, tax waivers would enable the growth of the export market.
Prof. Nandimath: Along with investments and pro-active policy we need to hone young talents to engage with the semiconductor industry — how do you think the present preparedness of India? Or do you think our educational institutions need to do more?
Mr. Kannan Srinivasagam: I certainly believe education institutions need to do more, especially in the 2nd and 3rd tier cities. There is a lot of talent which is not being mentored properly and with no industry-level association. This talent is currently getting wasted. It is harder in the 2nd and 3rd cities (as well as some of the metro city colleges) as the capabilities of students vary immensely. The challenge for college administration is to provide exposure to industry, effectively identify talent and mentor them to align on the opportunity or role which would be suited to them. Two main things which should happen here are to encourage institutions to have professors have more industrial based engagements as well as enable them to set up industries within their college. This is happening in lot of colleges currently but needs to expand to all colleges to ensure that the next generation passing out of colleges are well-trained to take on the opportunities which the governments and large corporations create in the semiconductor ecosystem.
Prof. Nandimath: Sir, finally, is there any message you need to put across to the government (both Central and State) to facilitate the semiconductor industry’s growth, particularly from the perspective of new promising startups?
Mr. Kannan Srinivasagam: Establishing a semiconductor industry and ecosystem takes hefty capital investments and time. Governments and large corporations have some buffer with respect to this, startups often struggle due to investment requirements and time for development. I believe the government is already providing incentives to the start-ups along these lines, but we need to see how we can enable more startups to flourish not just in semiconductor fabs and their back-end testing ecosystem but also building end systems and products which can be used for the local market and exported to the world. I would like to see more incentives in talent enablement in colleges and universities with more industry involvement and incentives also to build more systems and products, especially with components manufactured in India which will help build a robust ecosystem for a long time to serve both Indian and export markets.
Author: Prof. Nandimath Omprakash V
Prof. Nandimath Omprakash V, an academic lawyer, uniquely known to use law as a strategic tool for development and decision-making. He has honed this unique perspective in nearly 28 years of law teaching, research and consultancy experience. A trained business lawyer, he attempts to study the regulatory interphase between trade, environment and health. He was an active law practitioner before joining the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) – the oldest and leading law school in India in 1996. In his nearly three decades of academic career, he has experienced working in multicultural, multi-layered environments to solve real-life challenges. His journey ranges from bagging Fulbright and Chevening Scholarships to holding HAL DPSU Chair Professor and Executive Chair of Health Law & Ethics. He has many publications to his credit. He is currently serving as the Ness Wadia Business Chair Professor at the NLSIU, Bengaluru.
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