Also commenting on the occasion, Dr. Ajay Kumar added, "We have seen 50 mobile manufacturing units setup in the last 10 months, 20,000 jobs have been created and 9 mn mobile phones per month capacity built in India.

"Electronic Development Fund and Innovation Fund are two different funds to help accelerate electronics manufacturing and innovations in the country and both are operational. EDF is managed by Canara Bank Venture Fund, while IF is managed by SIDBI.  The government has allowed 100% FDI in Medical Electronics, 49% FDI in defence (higher on a case-to-case basis) to bring momentum in indigenous electronics manufacturing,"

Delivering the theme address  Nicholas Brathwaite, Founding Partner, Riverwood Capital, a globally-renowned private equity firm which has shown immense interest in India's ESDM startups, said "We are on the edge of hardware revolution and it's going to be more complicated than the app revolution. ‘Make in India' is a broad vision but the agenda should be ‘Make FOR India' with focus on Indian priorities.

"The ecosystem needs to drive affordability, low power and spectrum consumption, and explore expertise and entrepreneurial skills available in the country.  However, ‘Make in India' should not just focus on catering to local Indian market and reducing imports but should have a global outlook.

"We will have a number of electronics hardware companies from India in the next 10-15 years. Competition will come from global companies and not just local companies. And, these companies will have Indian personnel, just like most of the tech companies in Silicon Valley have at least one Indian in the senior management."

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