What significant role is your company playing for the E&E industry of India?
Our company is serving for the E&E industry by supporting end to end product development cycle from concept to final prototype manufacturing through our new EMS manufacturing facility. We also support the industry for low to medium level production requirements from board level manufacturing to box build services. Our specialisation lines are in Aerospace and Defence sectors which includes onboard cockpit electronics, rugged systems used in Aircrafts, ground support equipment such as radars, and industrial sectors which includes nuclear reactors, medical electronics, automotive electronics etc.

How SLN Technologies is serving overseas market?
Our company is serving overseas customer directly and indirectly with deemed exports etc. Our new manufacturing facility which was established during COVID year 2020 is supporting foreign electronics product companies, in prototype development, new product introduction (NPI) and low to medium production support. We are specialised in quick electronics board turnaround on a turnkey basis in seven days to three weeks turn around time. We started our exports in the year 2020 and this year our export revenue has reached 20 per cent of our total revenues. We are currently serving US and Japanese markets. Currently, we are engaged in bill to print services and OEM manufacturing services for local companies, MNC companies, defence and aerospace industry, and PSUs.

In your opinion, how PLI scheme has affected the industry?
PLI scheme has definitely helped to increase the top-line revenues, and increasing export revenues for the country. PLI has mainly benefitted big MNCs and some well-established Indian companies. However it has not helped MSMEs much. Currently, there is no scheme in India which is supporting the existing MSMEs for growth and exports. Though government has helped MSMEs during COVID for working capital through loans for a short period but MSMEs need a lot more investments for capital equipment and working capital support.

What challenges as a manufacturer do you see currently in the Indian market? What suggestions would you provide to overcome them?
To grow in manufacturing, companies have to invest continuously on capital equipment in order to upgrade the capacity and quality. Secondly, they need more working capital to meet the growing demands in the industry. In order to develop markets overseas, lot of investment is required for sales and marketing expenses, quality improvement programs, upgradation of equipment to meet international standards, etc.

There are a few schemes for startups, specific component manufacturing sectors and a few sunrise industries such as semiconductor. The MSME segment is contributing maximum to the GDP of the country but is completely neglected due to unrealistic schemes and stringent rules. The government should understand the issues of MSMEs and design the schemes accordingly. Before any scheme is announced for MSMEs, the concerned people should discuss with the industry and seek their suggestions on what is working and what is not. MSMEs should be supported without any conditions such as minimum threshold for investments to getting capital subsidies, low interest loans for capacity augmentation and exports, capital subsidy for R&D etc and incentives should be product agnostic.

What opportunities do you see in the Indian market in the coming five years? How is your company aiming to tap these opportunities?
According to me, contract manufacturing services, both in electronics and mechanical components manufacturing, fabless semiconductor design services, OSAT/ATMP services, and software and hardware design/development services offers a lot of opportunities in coming years. Indian companies also have a great potential to supply products and services to European and North American markets, in electronics products manufacturing, electronics and mechanical products designing and prototyping services etc.

Our company is planning to increase the production capacity and add more equipment to improve the quality. Our current SMT line is being upgraded to add 3D SPI, 3D AOI and X-RAY inspection equipment by October 2023. Our plant is designed for 4 SMT lines and we are in the process to establish the second SMT Line by end of 2023.

We participated in three trade shows in USA and one show in India and are planning to participate four more tradeshows in 2023-24 for developing export market with zero support from any government department. In addition to existing AS 9100 D and ISO 9001-2015 certifications, we are getting Medical ISO certification 13485 by October 2023 and Automotive ISO certification by 2024. We are creating more cleanrooms and testing facilities within our manufacturing facility and are looking increase export revenues to 30 per cent by 2025. We are training more IPC certified technicians and operators. We are looking to increase our man power from 130 (at present) to 500 by 2025 and turnover to Rs 200 crore by 2027.