Microelectronics is a major contributor to the global economy, not only through its design, manufacture, assembly, distribution and support, but also through effective utilisation in every other business sector. Microelectronics is ubiquitous in modern society.

The global electronics market has an estimated value of $2 trillion each year. Semiconductors account for $275bn revenue worldwide and have an annual growth forecast of between 6% and 8%.

There are significant challenges facing the Indian microelectronics industry including irreversible retrenchment by multinational engineering firms, sub-critical mass of home-grown heavyweight companies, and the evaporation of the venture capital sector that has hitherto supported start-ups in the sector. These dynamics are heavily impacting future economic development within the industry, which is costing the Indian industry ecosystems dearly. However whilst these are challenging, they also present a significant business opportunity.

It is highly unlikely that niche players such as Indian innovators who play in the periphery of systems will enjoy global success because their product is not at the heart of the system and therefore not in control of the system either. The key to the success of companies is to deploy innovation in order to own and control the heart of the system in high volume markets.

The Academy is a novel concept to create and nurture companies in the microelectronics market sector who have the potential of becoming a global player in mass-market products. This will be achieved by the Academy bringing together the innovators with their novel concepts in order to guide and focus their energies to tackle complete solutions that resides and controls the heart of future electronic products. A unique aspect of the Academy’s proposition is a broad collaboration of the key players in the value chain within the microelectronics industry to focus on Indian innovators.