I happened to meet up with Shiv Bhambri, CEO of RS Components & Controls (India) Ltd., which is based in NOIDA, near New Delhi, the capital of India. RS Components is a leading industrial component distributor with a wide range of Industrial products in research and development, maintenance and prototype development. Headquartered in Corby, U.K., RS Components offers its customers the convenience of choosing from a range of over 300,000 world-class products from 2000 leading global brands. The company’s agenda is to be the most cost-effective and reliable way for its customers to purchase their small-volume products. These are said to be their key differentiators: • Offering over 300,000 world-class products. • Products in stock from over 2,000 leading global brands. • Free four-day door-delivery for these 300,000 imported products against INR payment anywhere in India. Besides launching a new service on “Text Price Mobile services,” during Electronica 2010, RS Components also showcased products in MRO (maintenance, repair and operational) and test & measurement equipment. Naturally, my instinct was to look for optoelectronics products, which are in abundance on the website – 6,788! The key ones that I found in optoelectronics were: • Laser diodes: 9 • Laser modules: 85 • LEDs: 3,863 • LED accessories: 243 • LED lamps: 662 • Photoamplifiers: 34 • Photodetectors - logic output: 34 • Photodetector arrays: 36 • Photodiodes: 220 I had a closer look at laser modules and photodiodes. The variety of laser modules includes: • Laser diode module accessories:17 • Laser diode modules: 57 • Laser diodes: 4 The laser modules are available from Global Laser, Honeywell and Picolas. Perhaps, RS Components could do well by offering more variety here, if possible. The variety of photodiodes includes: • Detectors - human eye sensitivity: 7 • Detectors - infrared: 53 • Detectors - infrared - metal can: 19 • Detectors - ultraviolet: 29 • Detectors - visible light: 55 • Slotted optical switches & reflective sensors: 2 The photodiodes are available from quite a large variety of suppliers such as Avago, Centronic, EG & G Vactec, Hamamatsu Photonic, Kodenshi, Lite-On, Optek, Osram Opto Semiconductors, SG LUX, Sharp, Vishay, etc. Bhambri said that the company is targeting three main segments – the electronic design engineer, prototype engineer and maintenance engineer, respectively. RS Components has recently made two upgrades on its website – by adding an Electronics Center and a Design Spark. The latter is an online gateway to connect the electronics community. Pradeep