Freescale eyes India

With India's electronic equipment consumption expected to reach $126.7 billion by 2010 from the present $28.2 billion, Freescale Semiconductor, which specialises in designing embedded semiconductors, has India on its radar for growth.

Formerly Motorola's Semiconductor Products division, Freescale began its sales operations in Bangalore in 1990 and commenced R&D operations in 1998.

"At present, Asia accounts for 46 per cent of our total revenue. It is our intention to increase Asia's share to more than 50 per cent over the next three years. India and China will play a crucial role in enhancing our revenue from Asia," said Freescale Semiconductor vice-president (Asia Sales) Ishrat Hakim.

Speaking to Business Standard, Hakim pointed out that India was on the upswing when it came to chip design.

"There is a gradual shift from IT services to high-end chip design work, especially in the software aspect. In the coming days, 'products made in India, for India', will assume importance. This trend will be of interest to Freescale and India will be our thrust area," he added.

He said the Indian semiconductor market was growing at a healthy rate of 30 per cent.

"A majority of the world's leading chip design companies have established their presence in India. As more and more companies continue to work on their designs for India as well as the international market, it will be of advantage to us," he stated.

Freescale India country sales manager Sanjeev Keskar said the company had already established a client base of 300.

"There will be a lot more electronic components in a variety of consumer goods in the coming days. It is an encouraging sign for us," he noted.

Keskar said Freescale will concentrate on five verticals for growth "� automotive segment for body and engine control systems (companies in the auto sector including auto electronics manufacturers); industrial segment for motor control applications (companies manufacturing UPS/ inverters and energy meters); telecom segment in both wired and wireless for base station and client applications; consumer segment for appliances control and remote control.

Freescale will also lend technical support to global companies, which either have set up their R&D facilities in India or given major projects to Indian design services companies.

Headquartered in Noida, Freescale India, which focuses on next-generation technologies, employs about 800 engineers.

Recently, it announced plans to hire 1,500 engineers over the next four years. The India Design Centre, the largest outside of the US, has filed more than 30 patents over the last two years.