— Gautam Awasthi, GM-Marketing, EMG, Agilent Technologies, India

Agilent Technologies Inc. is the world's premier measurement company and a technology leader in chemical analysis, life sciences, electronics and communications. In an exclusive interaction, Gautam Awasthi takes us through the electronics measurement (EM) business in India. Awasthi asserts that with huge investment outlined in the power sector will lead to a big growth in the T&M market. He also explains Agilent's philosophy of being more of a technology enabler for scientists and engineers around the world.

How has the growth of Agilent's electronic measurement (EM) business been in India over the recent years? What do you see as the biggest growth drivers?
The test and measurement (T&M) industry in India has performed very well in the last few years. As electronics technologies evolve, Agilent Technologies stays one step ahead with its mantra of Anticipate-Accelerate-Achieve: anticipating customer's test and measurement needs, accelerating their tests/time-to-market with reliable products, and helping them achieve their goals.

Agilent offers the broadest T&M portfolio from a single vendor in the market today. From consumer electronics to homeland security, from wireless and wire line communication to network deployment, Agilent offers its customers unmatched breadth and depth of measurement tools and expertise.

India's T&M industry has seen good growth in last few years with the increasing investments in design, R&D and manufacturing for all major electronics markets including telecom, aerospace, defense, automotive, consumer electronics, contract-manufacturing, semiconductors, etc.

Markets in 2012 have been cautious due to the prevailing economic climate but it is being seen as a temporary phase especially with large nascent markets like India. Fundamentals around investments by private players in the country are still very strong, and some of the government policies like the National Policy for Electronics & National Manufacturing Policy would be a further shot in the arm for the electronics and test equipment market growth in the country for the next many years to come.

Oscilloscopes, as we understand, have been Agilent's scoring point in India. Tell us more on Agilent's oscilloscope market in India.
Oscilloscopes are the fundamental test & debug tools in all spheres of product development and manufacturing. Oscilloscopes have evolved from the traditional analog scopes to high performance digital oscilloscopes. Modern day oscilloscopes have extremely high speed ADCs and loads of memory. They have unprecedented analysis capabilities and more and more automated compliance software. Modern day oscilloscopes also have very high fidelity high bandwidth modular probing systems.

Agilent is the fastest growing oscilloscope company in the world since 1997, according to Prime Data and has grown a considerable share in the local Indian market over the last couple of years, driven by our superior product quality and performance, and the best price-value.

Most of Agilent research in oscilloscope is focused on solving customers' debugging issues and enabling their forays into new technologies of the future. Agilent endeavour is to provide a good user-experience, in addition to being a 'technologyenabler' for scientists and engineers around the world.

The power sector is witnessing unprecedented growth in terms of envisaged capital investment. How does Agilent intend to tap this booming market?
Power is an essential requirement and a basic human need. The growth of an economy depends on the power consumption and its availability. Even the government authorities understand this, which is the reason they are investing Rs.14 trillion in the power sector. The sector is expected to create 6-7 lakh job opportunities in 2012-17.

The future for the Indian T&M equipment industry is certainly very bright. This optimism essentially comes from the country's power sector ambitions. India is set to add around 15,000 mw of new power generation capacity per year, over the next 5-7 years. New power generation plants and supporting evacuation infrastructure will positively influence prospects of the T&M equipment industry. It is also pertinent to note that Indian power transmission is moving to the EHV and UHVAC class, which will generate demand for even more sophisticated equipment.

As in any technology, power electronics and electrical segment is going to witness some new technological advancement. We will definitely see some new sophisticated, high performing instruments though at more economical costs. Agilent Technologies has always been working closely with organizations working on emerging technologies, partnering them on their T&M needs.

Also when we talk about ultra-high-voltage levels, safety is a primary concern. Technicians or engineers working on such platforms require instruments which can not only provide reliable, repeatable and fast results but also it should be safe and easy to operate. Our quality certification procedures check on each and every instrument as per the latest safety standards. Please discuss Agilent's R&D set up in India. Has Agilent faced paucity of specialized manpower for its R&D activities? We partner our customers as "technology-enablers" and always strive to be ahead of the technology curve when it comes to our products and solutions. Throughout its history, Agilent has invested heavily in R&D, firmly committed to technology leadership and our research laboratories identify and enable technologies that advance measurement, create compelling customer value and achieve sustainable competitive differentiation. In fiscal 2011, we invested 11 per cent of revenue in R&D across the board, organically outpacing the market and as India is a big market, we will continue to focus on R&D centers. We at Agilent Technologies believe in technological advancements, we are diligently working towards innovating new technologies. India has a huge R&D pool with low cost advantage. Besides, the country has emerged as a vast potential market. Keeping these factors in mind, we set up an R&D centre in India. All our R&D activities are centrally driven. Agilent serves five market verticals-chemical analysis, life sciences, diagnostics, electronics and communications. On top of these is a common pool of researchers under Agilent Laboratories, who are looking at cutting-edge futuristic research & innovations.

India is moving towards imbibing the "Smart Grid" culture. Does Agilent have specialized products/services to this effect?
The smart grid is revamping the electricity delivery network from electrical generation through the end-use customer with improved costing, efficiency, reliability and security. Smart grids leverage the latest in digital and information technology such as microprocessors, communications, advanced computing, and information technologies that provide advanced two-way communications between utility provider and energy consumer. These changes are resulting in a multitude of new smart grid devices with more advanced electronic designs that must seamlessly integrate into the grid. These more advanced designs require new modernized manufacturing test strategies in order to meet the cost, quality, delivery and reliability expectations of smart grid stakeholders.

Smart-grid implementations include generation stations; step-down and step-up substations; and various residential, commercial and industrial customers. Smart meters must be tested before they are deployed.

Agilent offers comprehensive board test solutions that respond to the need for new, modernized test strategies for smart meter manufacturers. Agilent solutions enable manufacturers to perform comprehensive in-circuit test (ICT), functional circuit test (FCT) and combination test (ICT + FCT in a single test) at the assembled PCBA level, with the goal of assuring product quality and greatly reducing costs.

Tell us more on Agilent's offering in the solar power sector. What are your expectations from India given the big solar power ambitions?
Agilent has the largest portfolio of power and measurement products to meet the testing needs of the solar industry. The explosive growth in the solar industry has intensified the need for solar cell, solar module and MPPT/inverter test and measurement solutions. The challenge is to differentiate your solar product. Competitive differentiators are efficiency, yield and reliability. Agilent powers the solar revolution with industry leading power supplies, electronic loads, parametric analyzer, source measure units (SMU), DMMs and data acquisition systems. Agilent has a broad range of solutions for R&D and manufacturing engineers developing solar products. For instance, Agilent's E4360 solar array simulator allows simulation control over a wide-ranging MPPT/Inverter module performance.

Please summarize your outlook on India's T&M market, and your prospects for Agilent in the subcontinent.
The measurement market will grow in the coming years. Industries belonging to the aerospace and defense, automotive, general electronics manufacturing, security, communications, pharmaceutical, life sciences and services sectors have been the primary drivers of this growth. There is an increasing spend in all these sectors in India. As a result, measurement products that are suitable for these markets are being conceived, innovated and developed in India. The measurement market in the electronics and the bio-analytical areas that serve the above mentioned segments has experienced a very robust growth in India.

In order to tap this growing market, Agilent Technologies is continuously innovating and launching new products and solutions which can fit into R&D bench or onto manufacturing belt. Also as support and calibration is key aspect for T&M products, we are expanding our current NABL accredited service & calibration lab at Bangalore so as to provide quick support to the customers.