Karnataka First

The investment signifies that the company is making to build semiconductor capabilities.

In its first acquisition in India in the silicon design space, IT consulting and services major Accenture announced the acquisition of Bengaluru-based Excelmax Technologies. The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The acquisition enhances Accenture’s growing silicon design and engineering capabilities. Excelmax provides custom silicon solutions used in consumer devices, data centres, artificial intelligence (AI), and computational platforms that enable edge AI deployments, to clients in the automotive, telecommunications, and high-tech industries.

The acquisition will bring in 450 strong engineering team of Excelmax joining the global IT player’s team. This is the second acquisition in the semiconductor design space by Accenture. In 2022, Accenture announced the acquisition of XtremeEDA, an Ottawa, Canada-based silicon design services company.

Mahesh Zurale, global lead – Advanced Technology Centres Global Network, Accenture, said, “Accenture’s acquisition of Excelmax Technologies brings approximately 450 highly skilled silicon professionals to our Advanced Technology Centres in India. With the global demand for silicon solutions on the rise, India is becoming a hotbed for chip design. Growing our skilled talent in the country across physical and RTL design, verification, emulation, and firmware engineering will help us expand our capabilities in the silicon design space and accelerate innovation for our worldwide clients.”

Founded in 2019, Excelmax brings comprehensive semiconductor solutions from high-level design to detailed physical layout ready for manufacturing, and full turnkey execution. The company adds approximately 450 professionals to Accenture in key areas such as emulation, automotive, physical design, analog, logic design, and verification, expanding Accenture’s ability to help global clients accelerate edge computing innovation.

Growing capabilities inorganically has been Accenture’s strategy. In FY24 (YTD), it acquired 35 companies at a total cost of $5.2 billion. In the past, the company has acquired Indian and India footprint companies.

“With the rapid evolution of new technologies like generative AI and the growth of connected products, more intricate, specialized chips with enhanced performance and efficiency are required,” said Karthik Narain, group chief executive—Technology at Accenture. “Our acquisition of Excelmax enhances our expertise across every aspect of silicon design and development—from concept to production—so we can help our clients fuel innovation and drive growth.”

“Our focus has always been on developing the best talent to deliver tailor-made solutions for our global clients that help them build and maintain competitive advantage,” said Shekhar Patil, founder & CEO, Excelmax Technologies. “Joining Accenture enables us to remain at the forefront of innovation, providing new and exciting opportunities for both our clients and our people.”

The semiconductor market is experiencing a surge in demand for silicon design engineering, driven by the proliferation of data centres and the increasing use of AI and edge computing. This is further propelled by the growing consumer appetite for electronics, which is driving new investments in the chip design space.

The engineering design space, which would be a similar area as Accenture’s acquisition, has seen some of the largest M&A deals by global and Indian IT services players. Recently, Cognizant announced the acquisition of Belcan in a $1.3 billion transaction. Similarly, Infosys acquired Germany-based in-tech for $480 million.

source/content: business-standard.com (headline edited)

Among the key initiatives at the state-run schools, apart from health check-ups, taken up by Dr Thomas and his nine-member team, is to impart education to girl children on menstrual health through women doctors who serve as consultants for the school health programmes.

One of the first times that Dr Tony Thomas, 48, provided community service in his home city of Bengaluru was as a young dentist 20 years ago when he saw the distress of a young, orphaned child in his neighbourhood affected by a cleft lip – a birth defect.

With a group of doctor friends, he managed to get the young girl treated for the defect with free-of-cost surgery at a local multispecialty hospital. The group of doctors later went on to start a free cleft surgery programme in Bengaluru which saw over 300 surgeries being conducted a year until Covid hit in 2020 and the programme had to be stalled due to the virus-linked restrictions.

However, the free cleft surgery programme helped Dr Tony Thomas forge ties with the government of Karnataka to identify needy patients around the state. It also took him to dozens of government schools around the state where he realised that the situation of the health and education of the children lacked quality and were often abysmal.

‘Health and education are still very neglected’

“While working with government schools, I saw the ground reality. What is on paper in terms of health and education is different from what you see on the ground. Health and education are still very neglected in many parts of the state,” Dr Thomas said.

What began as an initiative to provide free treatment for children born with a cleft lip has now gradually expanded into efforts to organise free child health camps, computer education, advise on menstrual health for girls and provision of solar power and clean drinking water at government schools in rural settings – mostly in rural Bengaluru and parts of south Karnataka.

Dr Thomas, a masters degree holder in public health management, started the Trinity Care Foundation in 2007 as a part of efforts to improve government schools, the health of students in the schools as well as continue the initiative of providing free cleft and facial deformity surgeries for the marginalised sections of society in Karnataka.

Help from corporates

With several corporates ranging from the PSU HAL, foreign firms like Toyota, Sabic, Tesco and Johnson Controls pitching in through their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, the healthcare and school improvement initiatives of Dr Thomas and the Trinity Care Foundation reaches thousands of rural school students every year in south Karnataka.

“We initially started in a small way on our own to work with government schools. Now, we have reached out to around 172 schools. Last year, in the Ramanagara district, we reached out to around 12,000 students, with support from Toyota (which has a manufacturing plant in the region), with initiatives on child health camps, provision of essential medicines, nutrition, spectacles and hearing aids at the local government schools,” Dr Thomas said.

Among the key initiatives at the state-run schools, apart from health check-ups, taken up by Dr Thomas and his nine-member team, is to impart education to girl children on menstrual health through women doctors who serve as consultants for the school health programmes.

“For the girl students, the lady doctors talk about menstrual health and matters like the good touch and bad touch. They open up before the women doctors on their issues which does not happen with male teachers and doctors. For the boys, the education revolves around harms of tobacco usage and issues around the POCSO law,” Dr Thomas said.

In the Anekal taluk of Bengaluru Rural district, the Trinity Care Foundation has reached out to over 5,000 students with funding from Tesco and over 10,000 students in the K R Puram region on the outskirts of Bengaluru with support from Sabic.

Focus on computer education

“One of the things we are trying to address apart from health in schools is computer education. We find that many schools have computers but they do not have teachers, power supply, or the internet. At six government schools (in rural Bengaluru) we have installed solar power units with the help of funding from firms like Enphase and Johnson Controls. We have also recruited and provided teachers for computers at these schools,” he said.

The foundation has provided safe drinking water at 52 government schools and has set up two community RO-based drinking water plants in the rural areas.

“The key to our programme is the rapport we have been able to build with the government. The government has trust in us that we will not provide spurious medicines at the camps or show political bias. The fact that I am a doctor has an added benefit as officials are willing to listen to proposals,” Dr Thomas said.

In the corporate sector, there are many who want to do serious service through the Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives in order to make a difference in society where they work and this is true especially among multinational companies who have clear social mandates.

‘Most doctors don’t want to work in rural areas’

“Among the things that multinationals cannot understand often is why there are no computer teachers in the rural schools or good rural healthcare. They cannot understand that most doctors do not want to work in rural areas,” Dr Thomas said.

“Many companies want to restrict CSR work to providing infrastructure – like a school building or a computer lab since these have touch and feel elements. There is no way of measuring the value or social impact of health and education initiatives,” he said. Corporates also want to work with organizations that have clear processes in place, he pointed out.

Among the observations that Dr Thomas has to provide on health and education from his over two-decade-long work in the rural areas of Karnataka is that a medical college is needed in every district of a state if good healthcare is to be taken to every corner.

“A district hospital alone will not do since there are usually very few doctors. A medical college with good outreach work can reach out to the villages in a district through the medical students and its faculty,” the public health specialist said.

“It is sad to say that the quality of education and health in the rural areas is not very good and is not improving either. In the Class 10 results this year in Karnataka, nearly 1.5 lakh students passed the exam on account of grace marks. The teachers are not interested in teaching in many schools. Only in coastal Karnataka, the situation can be considered to be optimal,” he observed.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)