
New research from In-Stat suggests that cost advantages and availability of skilled manpower have led integrated device manufacturers to either outsource part of their design activities to third-party design firms in India, or set up their own captive centres in the country.
"Indian design companies will continue to move up the value chain by increasingly accomplishing the entire design instead of doing piecemeal design work," said In-Stat analyst Mayank Jain.
"Captive centres of integrated device manufacturers work on cutting-edge technologies and contribute to the development of products for a global audience."
In-Stat predicts that integrated circuit design services revenue in India is likely to grow from US$869m in 2005 to US$2.45bn by 2010, while the number of Indian design engineers will increase from 12,352 in 2005 to 40,893 by 2010.
The analyst firm pointed out that one major issue facing the industry is the availability of manpower, but claimed that the sector is gearing up to meet this demand by fostering close ties with academia.