With nearly 40 years of continuous presence in India, Texas Instruments (TI) stands as a pioneer among multinational technology companies that recognized India’s potential early on. From establishing the first engineering center by an MNC in India to becoming a powerhouse for end-to-end product development, TI’s journey reflects a deep integration of local talent, customer insight, and global innovation. In this conversation with Elizabeth Jansen, Country Director – India Sales & Applications, Texas Instruments, discusses the company’s evolution, its expanding role in India’s technology ecosystem, and its commitment to sustainability and innovation.
Read the full interview here:
TimesTech: Texas Instruments has had nearly four decades of presence in India. How would you describe the company’s journey and evolution in the market?
Elizabeth: We’re extremely proud of our journey in India. Texas Instruments was the first multinational company to establish engineering operations here, something we take great pride in. Over the last forty years, our India site has grown steadily and continues to do so.
What began as a product engineering hub has evolved into full end-to-end product development. Today, India plays a vital role in TI’s global operations and design ecosystem. We’ve also expanded our sales and applications teams to ensure we’re closely connected to customers across the country.
Our goal has always been to bridge customer needs with our products, and with the growth of India’s customer base, that connection has become even stronger. Many of the products and applications, from sustainable energy to energy-efficient applications are
engineered and developed right here in India. This is a reflection of how integral India has become to TI’s innovation and global strategy. TI India engineers have contributed to end-to-end product development, supporting solutions for sectors ranging from industrial and automotive to communications, personal electronics, medical, and space technology. By translating the unique needs and insights of India’s customer base into new products and tailored solutions, our teams here play a pivotal role in shaping technologies that serve both local and global markets.
We’re committed to continuing our investments in both our engineering sites and our sales and applications teams to continue to support this growth in the coming years.
TimesTech: From a sales perspective, which industries or applications are driving the strongest demand for TI’s semiconductor solutions in India right now?
Elizabeth: We focus on areas that are meaningful and relevant to our customers. In India, sustainable energy is a key growth area, this includes solar power, smart metering, and energy storage solutions.
Another major driver is the two-wheeler segment, for example, vehicle electrification and connectivity, along with a growing need for more low-cost solutions such as microcontrollers. We have also invested in expanding our portfolio in areas like commodity analog.
Appliances are another exciting segment for us, from ceiling fans and air conditioners to water purifiers, our technologies touch everyday life in Indian homes. All of this engineering is deeply tied to our Bangalore site, which connects local innovation directly to customer needs.
TimesTech: How does TI’s deep understanding of the Indian market give it an edge over global competitors?
Elizabeth Jansen: The advantage comes from our thought process when we think more like our customers. We have thousands of employees in India, including a strong engineering base and a growing sales and applications network across multiple cities. In addition, our workshops provide hands-on experience that translates directly into innovation with our customers, often helping them accelerate new product development. We conduct seminars not just in Bangalore but across many cities. The breadth of our product portfolio, with options starting as low as 2 cents, appeals to a wide range of customers because it offers flexibility in cost, performance, and technical capabilities. And with thousands of products released every year, we’re able to support an exceptionally diverse set of design needs and applications.
This closeness helps us understand our customers’ challenges firsthand and co-create solutions that are innovative, cost-effective, and efficient. Our broad semiconductor portfolio allows us to support customers at a system level, integrating sensors, power management, signal processing, and connectivity, to deliver complete, optimized solutions rather than isolated components.
This holistic approach, coupled with our transparent and efficient supply chain, gives TI a unique edge in helping customers innovate faster and bring their products to market more efficiently.
TimesTech: How does TI collaborate with Indian customers, both technically and commercially, to accelerate innovation and reduce time to market?
Elizabeth Jansen: Collaboration is at the heart of what we do. On the technical side, it’s about identifying core problem areas and exploring how we can make our customers more competitive, whether through better analytics, improved power efficiency, or system-level optimization.
Our teams work closely with customers to translate their requirements into our future product roadmap, ensuring that upcoming generations of TI products directly address evolving market needs.
On the commercial side, competitiveness is key. Having the perfect technical solution isn’t enough if it isn’t affordable. That’s why we constantly renew and optimize our technology portfolio to meet market-specific needs, including designing for cost and offering flexible sourcing options. For example, we offer MCUs priced around 15 cents and other components available for about 2 cents, these are parts released on TI.com, giving customers cost-effective options without compromising on performance or reliability.
We’ve also made it easier for customers to access information about parts, tools, and alternatives directly through our platform (TI.com), ensuring transparency and flexibility in how they source from TI. Our ultimate goal is to make our customers as competitive as possible, because their success drives ours. As the world becomes more dynamic, we’ve enhanced our digital capabilities to support this pace of change, from robust cross-reference tools that allow customers to compare competition-to-TI and TI-to-TI alternatives, to enabling uploads of up to 100 line items at once on TI.com. TI’s direct channel approach and Purchase Order Automation (POA) streamlines how customers place and manage orders on TI.com by allowing their procurement systems to connect directly with ours. This eliminates manual steps, reduces errors, and speeds up the ordering process. With POA, customers can automatically submit purchase orders, receive confirmations, and manage updates in real time, enabling faster, more accurate, and more efficient sourcing at scale.
TimesTech: What is TI’s commitment to sustainability and social responsibility, particularly in the Indian context?
Elizabeth: Sustainability is deeply embedded in our global strategy. TI has set ambitious goals, globally, we’re committed to achieving major sustainability milestones by 2030, and in the U.S. by 2027.
In India, we’re investing heavily in renewable energy for our existing facilities and continuously working to reduce waste and optimize manufacturing processes. Ourannual sustainability report openly tracks progress on key areas like energy consumption, water conservation, and carbon footprint reduction. We are also a member of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), and have committed to setting science-based targets to align with a 1.5 °C trajectory. On our India operations, for example, we have achieved reductions of around 23% in energy consumption and are making substantial cuts in water usage as well.
We hold ourselves accountable to measurable goals, and transparency is central to that commitment. Sustainability isn’t just a corporate initiative, it’s a responsibility we take seriously at every level of our operations.
