The demand for telecom products has been breathtaking, and India is adding over 2 million mobile phone users every month. Teledensity now is over 10 percent but in just two years it is expected to rise to 22 percent with 250 million telephone subscribers. Due to extremely low penetration levels at present, this growth is expected to sustain beyond 2007 and continue upto 2015. Demand for Computer/ IT products, auto electronics, medical, industrial, as well as consumer electronics is rising on the crest of a 400 million strong and aspiring middle class. With the Indian economy growing at an impressive 7% per annum, the projection of a US$ 150 billion plus market is realistic, offering an excellent opportunity to electronics players worldwide. Samsung alone has a market of US$ 1.4 billion for it products in India today.

• Govt. plans to draft a national semiconductor policy, chip makers to get free power, land: The government is in the process of drafting a national semiconductor policy as more and more proposals are pouring in for setting up semiconductor facilities across India. The policy is expected to be modeled on the framework in Taiwan and China, which means that infrastructure facilities like power, water and land, required for setting up a project, will be provided to the promoters free of cost. Taiwan has about 40 chip plans and China has 39 fabrication facilities. A “fab city” required about 60 mw power and about 50 million gallons of water per day once it is fully operational.

• $22 Billion inflow into IT, Telecom in 2006: According to the Union Minister for Communications & IT, Mr. Dayanidhi Maran, planned foreign investment in India’s booming Telecom and IT Sector was expected to double to $22 billion in 2006, as global majors were increasingly focusing on the country. Almost $9 billion in planned investment has been announced this year, including $3 billion by Semindia & AMD, $1.7 billion by Microsoft Corp and more than $1 billion each by Intel and Cisco.

• FDI in IT & Telecom at $9 billion in 2005: Since the beginning of 2005, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projected for India’s IT and Telecom sectors has reached a record $9 billion - $2.5 billion in (bn), Intel (1 bn), Oracle (903 mn), Ericsson (250 mn) and Nokia (200 mn).

• Domestic IT, Telecom biz log Rs. 1 lakh crore by 2006 end: According to the latest predictions by Gartner, the domestic market for computer hardware, software products & services and telecommunication services (ICT) is expected to cross Rs. 1,00,000 crore by the end of 2006, excluding IT spend by consumers or the home segment. The total Indian enterprise IT spending including hardware, software, telecom and IT services is estimated to reach Rs.1,09,300 crore in 2006 and grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 20.8% during the five year period ending 2009.

• India and China to grow faster than developing world in 2005: According to a recent World Bank Report, India and China are expected to grow at 7% and 9% respectively in 2005, higher than the average growth of 5.9% estimated for developing countries. This is despite the fact that the global GDP is expected to slow down to 3.2% during 2005 from 3.4% last year. The strong growth in India is being attributed to an increase in consumption, investment, exports and industrial production. The global slow down has been due to high oil prices.

• Indian economy clocks 8.1% GDP growth in H1: Indian’s 8% growth story is beginning to look real with each passing quarter. The Indian economy clocked 8.1% GDP expansion in the first half of the financial year 2005 on the back of strong performance of the manufacturing and services sector despite heavy rains and floods.

• Intel in chip designing deal with 4 Indian firms: Intel has signed agreements with Wipro, Mistral, Sasken Technologies and elnfochips for chip physical design in Indian for the next 2-3 years, The companies will be undertaking application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) design and embedded design for Intel.

• AMD, NRIs plan $3-billion chip unit, Govt. may take 26% stake: US Chip maker, Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) and SemIndia, a newly formed consortium of non-resident Indian, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for investing $3 billion for setting up India’s first advance fabrication facility. AMD will provide technical assistance to SemIndia for setting up of the plant for which the company is yet to decide the location. The new facility is expected to bring down prices of PCs, mobile phones, set top boxes and connectivity devices in India. Govt of India may take 26% in the new unit with an investment of $234 million.

• Product engineering next sunrise sector for IT firms: Product engineering seems to be the next sunrise segment for information technology companies in India with outsourcing potential of $12 billion. With the IT majors’ increasing emphasis on design and development coupled with the emergence of niche players like Onward Technologies and Geometric Software, product engineering is bound to increase.

• Samsung’s handset unit in Gurgaon: Samsung India announced plans to set up a $15 million handset manufacturing facility at Maneswar in Gurgaon. The facility is slated to be operational by early 2006 and will have an initial capacity of one million units per annum to be stepped up to 20 million units by 2010.