EPIC Foundation to enable manufacture of 700 million LED chips, 10 million indigenous tablets

New Delhi, 13
th April, 2022: EPIC Foundation, a not-for-profit organization founded by HCL Founder
Dr. Ajai Chowdhry along with fellow HCL founder Arjun Malhotra and semiconductor industry veteran
Dr. Satya Gupta was launched with the aim to revive India Electronics Industry by creating Indian
products and Indian Brands for the Electronics products of national importance. The launch function
was presided by chief guest Dr. V.K. Saraswat, Member NITI Aayog, Shri. Jasmine Shah,
Vice-Chairperson Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi, Dr. Srivari Chandrasekhar,
Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, , Shri Amitesh Kumar Sinha,
Joint Secretary MEITY and the eminent guests from Industry, government, and Academia.
EPIC Foundation was formed with the strong support from Industry and academia with two
primary objectives:
1. Create “Indian” Electronics products and “Indian” Brands in High-Impact/High-Volume
categories.
2. Drive demand for Semiconductor Chips by scaling the volume for these Indian Electronics
Products
Dr. Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman EPIC Foundation “We are pleased to announce the launch of EPIC
foundation. Our aim is to take Indian Electronics to real Atmanirbharta, from design of Electronics
products to Manufacturing and Design & Manufacturing of Semiconductor Chips. We will work
closely with all Industry associations, academia, industry and government to achieve EPIC
foundations mission”
EPIC Foundation announced two critical products at the launch function:
1. An Indian 10.1 Inch Tablet for Education and social empowerment with unique features of
Repairability, Upgradability and AI/ML based inter-lingual translation for Indian Languages
(Voice-2-Voice, Text-2-Text etc.) to support language diversity of India and inclusion of differently
abled fellow citizens.
2. An Indian LED Driver chip, which has 700 Million Units consumption and will reach to a Billion
Units in next few years. Supported by ELCOMA, the Top-10 LED product companies,
manufacturers have agreed to buy this chip. The large number of silicon wafers and chips
required for this project can help in reviving SCL Fab and create huge business of upcoming India
ATMP units.
Over the last 3 decades Indian Electronics Brands and Products have seen a continuous decline and
today, there are hardly any Indian brands and products in the high-volume electronics product
categories. Today the market share of “Indian” products and Brands is less than 10% out of $180
Billion market for electronics products.
Speaking about the Foundation, Arjun Malhotra, Co-Chairman EPIC Foundation added, “Our
mission at EPIC Foundation is to bring lost glory back for Indian Electronics products and brands.
With a unique approach and strong support of Industry, academia and government, we are very
confident to achieve this mission for creating Self-Reliance for Electronics in India”
For building a strong eco-system of partners, EPIC Foundation has signed MoU with government of
Delhi for setting up an Electronics City in Delhi and working with other states for developing
Electronics Product Design and Manufacturing eco-system. A Strong partnership with Academia is
essential and EPIC Foundation has signed MoUs with IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras. Industry associations
are very critical part of Electronics & Semiconductor ecosystem. The major industry associations in
the Electronics & Semiconductor domain, IESA, ELCINA, MAIT, ESSCI, ELCOMA are supporting EPIC
Foundation’s mission.
Dr. Satya Gupta, CEO, EPIC Foundation said, “We conceived the foundation with the intent to revive
Indian Electronics Products and Brands with indigenous design and manufacturing. The Educational
Tablet project and LED Chip project are very close to my heart as one addresses social empowerment
of 1.3 Billion Indians and the other put the wings to India’s Semiconductor Mission. It is Very
heartening to see an overwhelming support to the EPIC Foundation from all parts of Global
ecosystem.”
EPIC Foundation’s philosophy is to create equitable access for all citizens including differently abled
fellow citizens. Even the EPIC logo has “EPIC” written in Braille. At the Launch function EPIC
foundation Donated 20 MilkyWay (Aakash-Ganga) Tablets each to The Blind Society of India and Deaf
Society for Women