TN leads in automotive electronics sector
“Tamil Nadu is the second largest economy in the country and has significant advantages in attracting investments, especially in the automotive electronics sector. Though a silent performer, Tamil Nadu has a consistent growth rate of 7% and attracts investments in 12 major sectors,” M Velmurugan, Executive Vice Chairman, Investment Promotion, Tamil Nadu Industrial Guidance and Export Promotion Bureau, said at the 4th edition of the conference on Automotive Electronics. The event was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on the theme: ‘Next Megatrends in Automotive Electronics’.
TN has a long history in the automobile manufacturing sector and went on the right path of building components base, he said. During the presentation, Velmurugan added, “Tamil Nadu stands number one in almost 10 parameters as of 2018. In a recent survey, the State has been addressed as the best performer with overall performance in all the sectors.” According to the result published by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), Tamil Nadu is ranked number two in overall performance and ranked number one in various other parameters like infrastructure, skilled manpower, good governance and many more, he added.
The conference on Automotive Electronics discussed various current and future trends in automotive electronics and served as an opportunity for stakeholders to establish synergy in the special area of interest. Speaking at the event, Amit Jain, Conference Chairman and CEO, Executive Director of Advance Electronics, Technology and Development, UNO MINDA, NK Minda Group, said the automotive sector was at a transformation phase and a lot of changes would come in the next few years. There is huge demand in the automotive sector and everyone should look at India as a major place for investments. Ashok Chandak, Senior Director, NXP Semiconductors, said, “Automotive sector is the biggest contributor to GDP and is the driving force behind innovations. The architecture of the automotive sector is changing and is creating more and more opportunities. As we go into multiple domain architecture the networking inside the vehicle will change. The key domains in architecture include software, security and safety. We should see how these megatrends should be applied immediately. It will be the electronics that is very instrumental in realising all future vision which we look for. There are three important things that are happening worldwide: connectivity, autonomous and electrification. All these things should drive to safe and secure mobility.”
“India is the hub for automotive electronics. Infrastructure, methods and tools, systems and process, and innovation ecosystem are the key factor for automotive electronics sector to take lead. The ADAS functionality, which is relevant for India is something that we need to focus on. A few other areas where we could adopt are the autonomous energy braking for commercial vehicles and buses, lane departure warning etc. These are possible and relevant to the Indian market. It might be difficult and complex to bring these technologies in, but many things are happening to make this available for the Indian market,” Srinivas Aravapalli, Automotive Technology Consultant, said.