News
Strong potential for product engineering in India: Tata Elxsi's Nitin Pai
Date: Jul 10 2026
Publication: Electronics.economictimes.indiatimes.com
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, as part of the initiatives including the Semicon India Programme, the upcoming India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0, along with the Electronic Components Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS), is providing a fillip to indigenously manufacturing chips and components, building design capabilities, and supporting supply chain resilience.
NEW DELHI: There is a strong potential for India to emerge as an electronics product engineering hub on the back of government-driven schemes for the semiconductor and components sectors, according to a top executive of Tata Elxsi.
“I think there is a better case for product engineering, which is full system design, in India,” Nitin Pai, chief strategy officer at Tata Elxsi, told ETElectronicsWorld in an interview, adding that this approach would contribute to reducing electronic imports and generating jobs.
Tata Elxsi earns more than $400 million in revenues annually from its systems development practice.
The homegrown Tata Group company operates in three key industry verticals – transportation, hi-tech & media, and healthcare – which contribute 55%, 35%, and 10%, respectively, to revenues.
India’s electronics imports grew by 17.76% year-on-year to $116.17 billion in the fiscal year 2026, said the company, citing data from the Commerce Ministry.
“Even if I reduce that (electronics imports) partly by designing chips here, by packaging chips here, but most importantly by assembling and developing the entire system itself here, we can reduce imports and create jobs,” Pai said.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, as part of the initiatives including the Semicon India Programme, the upcoming India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0, along with the Electronic Components Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS), is providing a fillip to indigenously manufacturing chips and components, building design capabilities, and supporting supply chain resilience.
Pai said the government’s semiconductor schemes are “far-sighted”, and moving in the “right direction”. “We are fully prepared on the design side. On the manufacturing side, we are starting to see the ecosystem develop, such as ATMP and OSAT, which come very quickly. Then, we will have chip design and fabs, among others, gradually.”
The Bengaluru-headquartered company, with an annual revenue of ₹3,757.4 crore, as of FY26, has expertise in designing and engineering consumer and enterprise products. Its capabilities span hardware, embedded software, electronics, systems integration, artificial intelligence, and product platforms.
“India has a labor advantage,” Pai said. “There is a fantastic case for electronics and systems because you will also start to export them eventually. So, it is both making for India and exporting.”
Accleration in edge AI
Tata Elxsi highlighted that the adoption of advanced applications, including advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in automobiles and the need to optimise radio access network (RAN) in telecom, would be a major driver for edge AI in India.
“We are going to see more edge AI use cases come up. But equally, the work that you have to do in the back-end will continuously increase because you are continuously training the edge to be smarter,” Pai said.
With the AI-in-the-RAN method, he said there is an opportunity to improve bandwidth and subscriber experience, but added that there will be size and power-related constraints.
STL Partners' analysis of 12 leading-edge AI use cases in 2025 has pointed to a total addressable market (TAM) of $157 billion by 2030.
