Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and Jal Shakti Rajeev Chandrasekhar launched the “Digital India FutureLABS” at IIIT in the national capital and delivered the keynote address at the ‘Digital India FutureLABS Summit 2024,’ focused on ‘Catalyzing the Next-generation Electronics System Design through Digital India FutureLABS.’
The Summit also witnessed an announcement of 22 MoUs of C-DAC with Industry for implementation of the futureLABS. Companies like NXP Semiconductors, Tenstorrent and Qualcomm India have signed MoUs in areas like High Performance Computing space, Design & Innovation in Compute space and Indian Telecom Stack.
The Minister addressed the summit that included senior leadership of major industry players, startups, young Indians and academia from the electronics manufacturing field.
Chandrasekhar said, “So over the last ten years, India’s journey has transformed from being a consumer of technologies and a provider of talent for large technology companies worldwide to becoming a country where talent is certainly available. We continue to support global companies and enterprises with our talent, while also taking the lead in developing technologies, intellectual properties, and solutions for ourselves and the world. India’s tech & innovation ecosystem is expanding and growing while catalyzing the next wave of startups in AI to Semiconductors, Electronics System Design & Innovation starting at Digital India futureLABS.”
He said, “The Digital India futureLABS is the final piece in architecture for innovation being built by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
since the Digital India programme in 2015. It represents an opportunity for Indian startups at the forefront of developing NextGen Electronics in Automotive, Compute, Telecom, Industrial and Strategic Electronics. Digital India futureLABS will act as a catalyst for this and in rounding off our ambitions of ensuring the Indian flag on every segment of emerging Tech Innovation.”
The Minister also said, “What we expect from the FutureLabs is what emerged from AT&T’s Bell Labs and other laboratories in Albany, such as nanotech. These high-performance systems will be globally competitive, affordable, low-cost and trusted. Openness, safety, and trust are principles we want to build broadly into our digital ecosystem.”
The Digital India FutureLABS, coordinated by C-DAC, aims to tap into the trillion-dollar opportunity presented by the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) sector. The initiative seeks to move up the value chain, fortify domestic R&D, and create a collaborative ecosystem for the development of IPs, standards, and the next-generation Electronics System Design in the country.
Focusing on key growth areas such as Compute, Communication, Automotive & Mobility, Strategic Electronics, and Industrial IoT, the FutureLABS initiative is strategically positioned to leverage futuristic technologies, including AI, Big Data, and Quantum Computing, marking a transformative phase in Indian research.