UJALA encouraging the use of LEDs

Fahad Khateeb, Director, IndiLites

LED luminaires and solar power initiatives
The government has been very proactive in announcing schemes for electrification as well as power conservation, The schemes have taken off well and the response too, especially to power conservation products like LED luminaires and solar power has been very encouraging, says Fahad Khateeb, Director, IndiLites .He adds, “The rural population has picked up and understood the importance of LED products before the urban population for a change. In the last two years, the government has supplied 27.6 lakh tubelights and 24.8 crore LED bulbs across 28 states in India.”

UJALA – The game changer
According to Fahad, the UJALA scheme has been successful as it has helped create awareness about power saving LED lights and helped their penetration especially in rural India. The only glitch that they need to work on now is to ensure there is no shortage of products in the market. However, he adds, “Due to policies of some major players, the manufacturing of LED products in India has not been at the volume that should have been. The MSME industries that can be the major support system in this case feels left high and dry because their full potential isn’t used. As a result the supply and demand ratio is forever increasing.”

A little support to MSMEs and ease of operation can change this scenario and the Indian industry can, in fact become a major exporter of these products competing directly with China, observes Fahad. Under SLNP (Street Lighting National Programme) 2,00,000 conventional street lights have been replaced by LED lights. As of 2nd quarter of 2017, the government has replaced almost 18 lakh street lights across five states of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat and Goa. These two initiatives, in particular will be the game changers in 2017.

BIS certification – A big move
IndiLites considers making BIS certification of products compulsory is one of the biggest moves. According to Fahad, “The standard and quality of products is better than before and it has put a check on sub-standard imports too. India as a market has been the target for all manufacturers across the globe but our price sensitive population always ensured that we ended up getting poorer standard of product as compared to other countries. The move to make BIS compulsory ensured that sub standard products stay out of the market and a standard in maintained.”

IndiLites’s performance during past one year
IndiLites performed fairly well as the products are in demand as of now and the whole world is transitioning from conventional lighting to LED products. The products developed by IndiLites is conform to government standards and comply to all safety regulations. “We have been catering to residential lighting market as well as outdoor lighting market. We manufacture products like LED panels, COB Lights, Tube lights, LED Bulbs, Street lights, flood lights, highbay lights, says Fahad.

IndiLites is one of the few exporters of LED lights from India and export to countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.