Electrical equipment industry on the verge of revival: IEEMA

Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers’ Association (IEEMA) – the apex association of the Indian electrical equipment manufacturing industry, has recently appointed Anil Saboo as its President. In an interview with EPR, Mr Saboo said, “India’s share in the cumulative world market of electrical equipment of about USD 480 billion is less than 2 percent. So, there is the scope to increase India’s share up to 5 percent till 2025.”

Recent performance of power sector in India
The current COVID-19 situation has completely changed the global supply chain scenario and also given an opportunity to grow the local manufacturing and industries. Industry is also ready to grasp the opportunity. A lot of policy changes have been done by the government to promote local manufacturing e.g. proposed amendments to the Tariff Policy with tariff rationalisation and promotion of competitive market for power procurement by industries, standardisation of MSME definition, and initiative of replacing the L1 criteria of procurement.

However, there are still few more steps required like augmenting domestic testing facilities to cover the type testing of all equipment, mandating type testing of imported small equipment in Indian labs, supporting SMEs in technology up-gradation and testing, standardisation of product ratings and specifications, keeping a provision for type testing of small equipment picked up from site, etc.

The government also needs to support the industry by providing funds at globally competitive rates of interest and help industry to establish clusters of electrical and component manufacturers and provide them funds for technology up gradation

Future of Indian power sector in 2021
We as industry also need to think of innovative business models to keep up the pace of modernisation through smart grid technologies. The biggest opportunity and benefit to India lies in its consumer base which can help any product or services business in country to rise again. Now if we talk of power sector, COVID -19 has highlighted again that electricity is the lifeblood of any economy, especially at time like this when the sector plays a pivotal role in ensuring smooth functioning of critical institutions such as healthcare facilities and households as almost the entire population is homebound. I also feel that electricity sector would be among one of the few industry verticals which will be first to come out of this phase of recession or slowdown.

India’s share in the cumulative world market of electrical equipment of about USD 480 billion is less than 2 percent. So, there is the scope to increase India’s share up to 5 percent till 2025.

Recent breakthrough policy decision that will drive electrical equipment industry growth
The government has rightly emphasised on the “Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan”. There couldn’t have been a better time to highlight this. Indian industry has always been dynamic and lot of zeal and enthusiasm exists amongst existing and new entrepreneurs. With all the constraints, the industry does deliver when the country really needs it.

Even the world is looking towards India to deliver and take a leadership role specially when most nations turning hostile towards certain countries for their response and lack of support for facilitating the diagnosis of the causes of Corona virus outbreak. Indian industry has adequate capacity and most of them have actually been expanding their manufacturing set-up based on the domestic economic growth and rise of Indian exports. Electrical equipment manufacturing segment is one of the most robust industry segment in India with combined turnover of USD 50 billion and contributes more than USD 8.5 billion to exports.

Growth drivers for Elektrolites’s business beyond 2020
The major growth drivers for Elektrolites business growth are: Policy, investment, adoption of technology, and the most important generating demand. Now is the time to make all equipment communicable and smart to give value-added service to users. We shall be focusing on the adoption of new technology, innovation, and trends of the market to introduce cost effective solutions to utilities.

There is a huge opportunity for our products in the export market beyond 2020. In this year we are investing a lot in R&D to focus and develop the products as per the global market.

I would like to also request electrical industries to must expand atleast 30 percent of revenue in R&D to boost your business and Indian economy.

How Elektrolites is turning the tide in its favour despite challenges
We are consolidating our manufacturing base in one unit instead of three different locations to become cost-effective. We are also reducing our manufacturing cost by the adoption of digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence.

In this COVID-19 pandemic, we’re still faced with the necessity of doing business of making sales and meeting customer’s expectations as per demand. We are having collaboration with some of renowned European manufacturers of electrical and electronic products as import substitute. Also, we are looking for start-up projects where we can help entrepreneurs and foreign companies to establish their manufacturing and R&D base with us to explore massive opportunities in India.

Electricity sector would be among one of the few industry verticals which will be first to come out of this phase of recession or slowdown.
Anil Saboo, CMD, Elektrolites (Power) Pvt. Ltd. and President, IEEMA