HCL Founders launch non-profit to make 700 million LED chips in India

A group of veterans from the Indian electronics industry have formed a new non-profit organization (NGO) called EPIC Foundation, which aims to produce Indian products and brands for electronics. The group, which includes HCL founders Arjun Malhotra and Ajai Chowdhry, along with semiconductor industry veteran Satya Gupta, has also signed memoranda of understanding with the government of Delhi, and Indian Institute of Technologys in Kanpur and Madras.

According to Gupta, the group will seek to design products, including semiconductors, here in India, and partner with Indian firms who can manufacture them. Gupta also said that the organization will try to drive demand for Indian made chips, in products like LED bulbs, which are already made in and for India. 

In all, the organization plans to enable the manufacture of 700 million LED chips and 10 million indigenous tablets. It will also seek to create a $45 billion market for Indian electronic products. “We conceived the foundation with the intent to revive Indian electronics products and brands with indigenous design and manufacturing,” said Gupta.

Further, the EPIC Foundation announced two products today. The first is a 10.1 inch tablet for education, which will be manufactured in India and will have artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) based inter-lingual translation for Indian languages, including both voice-to-voice and text-to-text translation. It will also have “unique features” of repairability and upgradability.

The second product is an Indian LED driver chip, which will be supported by industry consortium the Electric Lamp and Component Manufacturer’s Association (ELCOMA). The organization said that this can create demand for upcoming semiconductor ATMP units in India and the SCL Fab.