ESDM – Electronic System Design & Manufacturing
History
Mysuru has traditionally been the land of creative thinkers, writers, artists, entrepreneurs, storytellers, singers, so on and so forth, as the royal city saw tremendous encouragement and patronage offered by the kings of the time. However with the end of monarchy and the birth of democracy, this support receded over time, but whatever fire (the fire to do things in life) that was “lit” by the kings continued to burn in the bellies Mysureans.
The Humble Beginning
By 1970s & 1980s Mysureans started many businesses which flourished to a great extent and one among them was Electronic business – making of simple components like transistors, capacitors, resistors, signal amplifiers, voltage transformers etc.
From that they moved up the value chain in the 1990s by getting into electronic sub-system design, printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication and assembly of the various components (locally sourced & imported) on PCBs, based on the need of their clients.
Remarkable Growth
The first decade of 2000 saw the Mysuru companies becoming Tier 1/ 2/ 3 suppliers for some of the major electronic device manufacturers of the world.
By the second decade of 2000, they got into the complex design and manufacturing of state-of-the-art electronic instruments in the defence, medical electronics, power electronics sectors.
Thus started the humble beginning of the Mysuru companies’ long march towards excellence in the ESDM sphere.
Current Situation
Currently many Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) based out of Mysuru have transformed her from a sleepy tourist city into an ESDM hub for designing and manufacturing of simple to medium level complex electronic systems. The city also houses companies which are into developing Firmware – it is a software written to drive devices (or device components) such as a video card, sound card, disk drive and even the motherboard. In many companies there are inhouse teams to develop Real time Operating system (RTO) and system level programming software to make hardware work the way they are intended to.
A few companies have gained expertise in developing multi layered complex PCBs and assembly of components, conducting end-to-end simulated testing, box-building etc.
Some even offer outsourced design and manufacturing services – from basic design, to developing proof-of-concept, from detailed engineering to full-fledge development of the product altogether. Some have so much in-house expertise that they got patents for their original designs.
Statistics
By 2020, there are more than 150 small, medium and large enterprises (SMLE) in and around Mysuru with a medium to high-level technical maturity to design, manufacture and test complex electronic systems. Their combined revenue is about Rs. 1700 Crores giving employment to over 6000 people (women included).
Government of India has recognized and appreciated the efforts put by these daring SMLE founders, and collaborated with the Karnataka government to set up LAHARI – an advanced component level testing and employee “skill-building” facility with state-of-the-art equipments, in order to boost the local electronic manufacturing and exports, and to make the local electronic industry mature enough to compete globally.
Wishlist
The local entrepreneurs, having bitten the success, are not content with what they have accomplished so far. Rather they are aiming for stars now. They want to be as successful as their peers from China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, and are working towards that. Their wish list includes following
Electronic Cluster: To build an ecosystem with over 2000 tiny, small, medium and large enterprises (SMLE) including MNCs – SAMSUNG, THALES, SIEMENS etc.
Domain Expertise: in providing end-to-end solutions including advanced level design, development, prototyping, mass manufacturing and testing for
- Avionics (commercial and fighter jets)
- Defence (Radars, battle communication systems & others)
- Medical electronics – Diagnostics, clinical, life support systems & others
- Consumer electronics – All kinds of electronics – mobile phones, tabs, laptops
- Railways & Aerospace – All kinds of signalling systems
- Outer space – All kinds of instruments which get into satellites, controlling stations.
Technical Maturity of the Ecosystem:
- To achieve 9 out of 10 on a scale of 0 to 10.
SEZ: Establishment of an SEZ with a turnover of Rs. 15,000 Crores employing 100,000 people on a 250 acres land near Mandakalli airport.
