The state-run Karnataka Innovation and Technology Services (KITS) and India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) jointly unveiled an incubation centre at Hubballi in north Karnataka to promote startups in the Electronics System and Design Manufacturing (ESDM) space, as per IANS.

“The 5,000-square feet incubation centre in the Hubballi ESDM Exchange (HEX) of the KLE Technological University campus has a world-class lab for prototype, Electronics Enabling Lab (EEL), maker space and tinkering lab and an SMT line for validation of testing machines in the vicinity,” IESA chairman Satya Gupta told reporters here.

“With the Indian ESDM market projected to be $400 billion by this decade, it is imperative that the country becomes self-sufficient (Aatmanirbhar) with Indian firms driving the electronics hardware market,” noted Gupta on the occasion.

“With the Indian ESDM market projected to be $400 billion by this decade, it is imperative that the country becomes self-sufficient (Aatmanirbhar) with Indian firms driving the electronics hardware market”

Startups will be provided the needed support and access to labs, mentoring, funding and scale-up programs by the centre.

Together, KITS and IESA aims to help incubate and nurture 1,000 ESDM startups across the country to build a Rs.1 lakh crore business and generate about 10 lakh jobs in the space during this decade, added Satya.

The state’s department of Electronics, IT, BT, Science and Technology is providing Rs.3.2 crore for the incubation centre’s facilities. Satya added that they hope the proposed 1,000 ESDM startups will create about 10,000 IP patents over the next decade.
Some startups that have been incubated in the KLE Centre for Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the university campus are Vegam-io, Skycraft Aerospace, Semiksha Semiconductors, and Celium Devices.