‘India largest engineering centre for Qualcomm globally’

NEW DELHI: India has emerged as the largest engineering base for American semiconductor giant Qualcomm – bigger than even home market US – as the company rides on high-end local technical talent as well as affordable costs to develop solutions that are deployed across global markets.
Such has been the success of the company’s work in India that Qualcomm is now looking to ramp up manpower and solution development across its key locations, country president Savi Soin said.
“I don’t want to say the number, but we have more engineers now in India than we have anywhere else in the globe… India is absolutely, essentially the core, (and) very, very important for Qualcomm,” Soin told TOI.

“For every one engineer or a team that we hire here, we have a lot of our partners coming up right next to us so that they can work closely with us in terms of specs, access to tech, partnerships, and so on and so forth. So, once we set up shop, a lot of our partners from the globe set up right next to us to get access to technology (and) work with us.”
The company has multiple development centres spread across Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Noida. “I’d say they’re the best in class in terms of chip design, hardware, and software. We’ve been doing it for the globe for quite some time. We’ve been here for almost 20 years. It was all baby steps initially, but now they do a lot of work here,” Soin said, adding, “Some of the chips being used in India are actually completely designed here.”
On creating new jobs, he said the company is doing a “lot of hiring” in India. “You will see us hiring folks in our development centers as well as in the business teams… you’ll see us very active in India… we continue to hire the best and we continue to invest in the best.”
Asked about business prospects for Qualcomm in India, especially as digital has been growing rapidly, he said there are a variety of industries where the company expects opportunities. “India as a market has become very important for us… With 5G being pan-India, there is an opportunity around 5G devices and its use cases… We’re making 5G more affordable (and) accessible. The second thing is about connectivity at home. Here fixed wireless access becomes very important, so that people can get access to broadband. So, we’re partnering companies for launching fixed wireless at home. Third is about premiumisation in vehicles as people want rich displays, and rich functionality. We are working very closely with automakers in India to bring alive digital experiences, both in four- and two-wheelers.”
Soin said other areas critical for Qualcomm’s business include internet of things (IoT), point of sale terminals, and AI-based cameras, where the company can work out software and hardware solutions. “And then the one that we are probably most excited about is the AI computers, which – for example – can offer functionalities such as eye tracking, noise cancellation, natural language translation, etc.”