“We have to be competitive for growth globally as well as look at ways and means to draw in more investment into the country,” says Vishnu Agarwal, President, IEEMA
 Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers’ Association (IEEMA) is the apex industry association of electricals and industrial electronics in India. The association is actively involved in addressing the bottleneck issues at all levels. In an exclusive interview with EPR, Vishnu Agarwal talks about the electrical equipment market and how to make it self-sustained.
How are policies and initiatives by the new government affecting the electrical equipment market?The size of the Indian electrical industry is valued at around $28 billion; a fourth of it is made up of power generation equipment. Transmission and distribution is contributing the rest. The industry provides direct employment to about 500,000 people and indirectly to about 1 million. We, as a country, are aspiring to increase the output of the electrical equipment industry to $100 billion by 2022 and become a destination of choice for overseas producers of such equipment.
This ambitious target can not happen without the active support from the government through investment-friendly policies and by focussed efforts of industry. We have to be competitive for growth globally as well as look at ways and means to draw in more investment into the country.
The new government looks very serious about the above and various initiatives such as “Make in India” campaign and skill-development initiatives are being pursued extensively. In order to unlock the power sector growth, which is battling fuel shortages and problems of land acquisition and securing mandatory approvals and suffering from several stalled projects, would be a topmost priority. A lot of actions in all directions are being taken with right earnest at that level.
Imports have captured about 43 per cent of the market for electrical equipment in India. Is it a matter of serious concern? If yes, how should we address this?The time between 2011 and 2013 has been extremely volatile for the Indian electrical equipment industry which showed a positive growth curve of 9 per cent in the first half ( H1) of 2011-2012. However, this was followed by a decline to 4.14 per cent in the second quarter (Q2) of the year from 13.82 per cent in the first quarter (Q1) of that year. Such inconsistency in the performance of the industry can be attributed to a number of factors. One of the main factors had been inflow of huge imports. Imports have grown by nearly 20 per cent from China, South Korea, Germany and other EU countries.
This significant influx in imports had seriously damaged the indigenous electrical equipment industry. There has been a significant hike in the price of the imported raw materials which were making the finish product as uncompetitive and seriously bleeding the domestic industry. China’s share in Indian imports of electrical equipment has dramatically increased in the last few years and stands at 44.92 per cent of the total in 2012-13, from 15.26 per cent in 2005-06. Data show that imports from China have grown at a CAGR of 24.67 per cent in the past 7 years. Imports of electrical equipment have assumed very threatening proportions and have now captured a 38.26 per cent market share of electrical equipment in India, whereas there is significant under-utilisation of installed domestic capacity, resulting in loss of employment .In order to stimulate demand for the domestic electrical equipment industry, we think the government should provide a level-playing field for Indian manufacturers to compete with imported equipment in the domestic market. There is an urgent need to improve fund availability to the power sector and provide fuel linkages and faster regulatory clearances for timely completion of power projects.
Model procurement guidelines for utilities with standardised and fair contract terms and conditions should be framed. Due importance should be given to the entire lifecycle cost of a product while evaluating the bids. Opportunities for new domestic manufacturers should be given by reforming the tendering process to increase transparency and speed.
How is IEEMA helping the Indian electrical equipment market in addressing growing challenges?Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers’ Association (IEEMA), being the APEX industry association of electricals and industrial electronics in India, is actively involved in addressing the bottleneck issues at all levels. It is in constant dialogues with the policy makers for ensuring the level playing fiels for the domestic industry. It has been highlighting the issue of price volatility and availability CRGO steel, which is totally imported and a critical raw material for all types of transformers .
IEEMA ‘s different product groups keep meeting at regular intervals to review the progress on the resolution of pending issues and identifying the new areas where the apex body has to work upon and can contribute .

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“We have to be competitive for growth globally as well as look at ways and means to draw in more investment into the country,” says Vishnu Agarwal, President, IEEMA
 Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers’ Association (IEEMA) is the apex industry association of electricals and industrial electronics in India. The association is actively involved in addressing the bottleneck issues at all levels. In an exclusive interview with EPR, Vishnu Agarwal talks about the electrical equipment market and how to make it self-sustained.
How are policies and initiatives by the new government affecting the electrical equipment market?The size of the Indian electrical industry is valued at around $28 billion; a fourth of it is made up of power generation equipment. Transmission and distribution is contributing the rest. The industry provides direct employment to about 500,000 people and indirectly to about 1 million. We, as a country, are aspiring to increase the output of the electrical equipment industry to $100 billion by 2022 and become a destination of choice for overseas producers of such equipment.
This ambitious target can not happen without the active support from the government through investment-friendly policies and by focussed efforts of industry. We have to be competitive for growth globally as well as look at ways and means to draw in more investment into the country.
The new government looks very serious about the above and various initiatives such as “Make in India” campaign and skill-development initiatives are being pursued extensively. In order to unlock the power sector growth, which is battling fuel shortages and problems of land acquisition and securing mandatory approvals and suffering from several stalled projects, would be a topmost priority. A lot of actions in all directions are being taken with right earnest at that level.
Imports have captured about 43 per cent of the market for electrical equipment in India. Is it a matter of serious concern? If yes, how should we address this?The time between 2011 and 2013 has been extremely volatile for the Indian electrical equipment industry which showed a positive growth curve of 9 per cent in the first half ( H1) of 2011-2012. However, this was followed by a decline to 4.14 per cent in the second quarter (Q2) of the year from 13.82 per cent in the first quarter (Q1) of that year. Such inconsistency in the performance of the industry can be attributed to a number of factors. One of the main factors had been inflow of huge imports. Imports have grown by nearly 20 per cent from China, South Korea, Germany and other EU countries.
This significant influx in imports had seriously damaged the indigenous electrical equipment industry. There has been a significant hike in the price of the imported raw materials which were making the finish product as uncompetitive and seriously bleeding the domestic industry. China’s share in Indian imports of electrical equipment has dramatically increased in the last few years and stands at 44.92 per cent of the total in 2012-13, from 15.26 per cent in 2005-06. Data show that imports from China have grown at a CAGR of 24.67 per cent in the past 7 years. Imports of electrical equipment have assumed very threatening proportions and have now captured a 38.26 per cent market share of electrical equipment in India, whereas there is significant under-utilisation of installed domestic capacity, resulting in loss of employment .In order to stimulate demand for the domestic electrical equipment industry, we think the government should provide a level-playing field for Indian manufacturers to compete with imported equipment in the domestic market. There is an urgent need to improve fund availability to the power sector and provide fuel linkages and faster regulatory clearances for timely completion of power projects.
Model procurement guidelines for utilities with standardised and fair contract terms and conditions should be framed. Due importance should be given to the entire lifecycle cost of a product while evaluating the bids. Opportunities for new domestic manufacturers should be given by reforming the tendering process to increase transparency and speed.
How is IEEMA helping the Indian electrical equipment market in addressing growing challenges?Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers’ Association (IEEMA), being the APEX industry association of electricals and industrial electronics in India, is actively involved in addressing the bottleneck issues at all levels. It is in constant dialogues with the policy makers for ensuring the level playing fiels for the domestic industry. It has been highlighting the issue of price volatility and availability CRGO steel, which is totally imported and a critical raw material for all types of transformers .
IEEMA ‘s different product groups keep meeting at regular intervals to review the progress on the resolution of pending issues and identifying the new areas where the apex body has to work upon and can contribute .

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