The Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers? Association (IEEMA), founded in 1948, is the apex association of manufacturers of electrical, industrial electronics and allied equipment in India. IEEMA has around 800 member organisations encompassing the complete value chain in power generation, transmission and distribution equipment. IEEMA members have contributed to more than 90 per cent of the power equipment installed in India. The Indian electrical equipment industry size in 2013-14 was in excess of Rs 1.28 lakh crore, with exports of $5 billion. The industry provides direct and indirect employment to over 1.5 million persons, and to 5 million across the entire value chain.

ELECRAMA-2016 is a biannual event organised by IEEMA will be held between 13-17 February 2016 at Bangalore International Exhi?bition Centre. Our team had an opportu?nity to talk to the officials of IEEMA and that of ELCRAMA-2016.

Sunil Misra, Director General, IEEMA

The 2012-2022 mission plan for the electrical equipment industry envisages the output of the electrical industry at $100 billion, from $25 billion in 2012. What is the present status?
In order to accomplish the set target of $100 billion by 2022, a comprehensive short term and long term strategy shall have to be evolved and goals have to be set and achieved.

The task is difficult but not unachievable. From policy and law makers side, It will call for a strong forward looking political will, ensuring political stability and coming up with investment friendly policy decisions and their fast implementation, addressing the challenges of the issues that are bugging power sector. Higher budgetary spending in capital expenditures in infrastructure related projects, shall be essential to support the growth.

Industry shall have to focus on project innovation, superior product quality. We in India, spend lot of resources in research however there is not much focus on development. Superior manufacturing and process technologies shall need to be harnessed for cost reduction and becoming competitive. We are now working on developing a firm roadmap for the mission plan.

With ?Make in India? mission, the Government is determined to remove the hurdles faced by manufacturers. Has the electrical equipment industry experienced the change?
There has been an overall increase in power generation by 8.4 per cent since last year. The Government had done well to untangle supply side issues by augmenting coal supply as well as taken efforts to boost transmission & distribution. ?Make in India? is perhaps one of the most important programmes being pursued by the Government of India. The central theme is about transforming India into a manufacturing hub with world-class technology. IEEMA being one of the proud partners of the ?Make in India? campaign has identified a four-point agenda and has been vigorously pursuing with the policy makers, so as to positively impact made in India products with state-of-the-art technology.

Moreover the electrical equipment manufacturing technology is witnessing significant modernisation while new technology is also being adopted in the manufacturing processes. Technological advancements, like smart grids and policies on emission reduction will influence the future direction taken by the power sector and electrical equipment industry in various countries.

Apart from the slowdown faced by the industry, there were factors like fuel supply and stalled projects adding to the woes. Have these been adequately addressed?
The complexities in acquiring multiple approvals for primary resources like infrastructure, land acquisition, construction power, etc. and disproportionate level of details sought with applications are among the major difficulties in the implementation of projects. These delays have a cascading effect on the capacity utilisation and growth of the BTG and T&D equipment industries. The electrical equipment industry will make the necessary investment to cater to the 12th and 13th plan projected capacities to meet the demand of generation, transmission and distribution sector. Timely completion of generation projects is extremely important for the healthy growth of the electrical equipment industry and in turn overall growth of the country.

Vishnu Agarwal, President, IEEMA

The cement industry is one of the largest consumers of electrical energy. What steps are to be taken by a cement producer to bring down its electrical consumption without compromising on the production numbers? Is there any electrical equipment one needs to work on?
Electrical equipment have undergone rapid challenges in terms of technology bringing efficiency in transmission, distribution and consumption of power. Large number of industry which consume heavy power certainly have desire for reducing their power bill by shifting to modern equipments which are more energy efficient. Timely maintenance of the equipment other than electrical also leads to saving power. Simple things like appropriate use of lubricants, V belts and equipment responsible for transmission of power within the machines, use of capacitors, etc. results in substantial saving of power.

Do you think adequate level of electrical safety is maintained while carrying out on line jobs? What precautions you suggest?
Safety in all respect is a must in any production site. Electrical safety should not be compromised as life is precious and an error could result in disabilities and fatalities. Endeavour should be made to full proof the process so that human error minimised.

R&D spend is poor in India as compared to global standards. There was a proposal for companies to pool resources to this end. Has there been any improvement from this effort?
Strategies for competitiveness for India has become need of the hour. Our country experienced controlled economy till 1990 and then liberised one. Lowering the tarrif barriers in domestic market has unleashed growing competition. This situation forced the domestic market to become competitive to earn sufficient foreign exchange to pay off our import requirements. Only way we can stay afloat is by creating competitive edge.

We should therefore seriously think as to how can we create competitive edge over the global players in terms of technology, product quality, process innovation, value engineering and so on. Acquiring customers and access the markets which constitute future profitable growth from anywhere on the globe calls for enhancing competitiveness. A major precondition for competitiveness enhancement is the availability of skilled labour.

The constant changing conditions of international markets forces the stiff conditions that the nations has to face. Therefore innovation is key to the competitive advantages for the country.

Technology advances help lower the cost and risk levels thereby reducing the manufacturing capital requirements. Therefore organisations have to be the learning organisations to have the sustainable competititive edge. Increased spending in R&D will help develop cost effective technologies.

T&D losses in India are the highest in the world of which only a third is due to technical reasons. Is there a systematic attempt to address these with active government participation?
For reducing AT&C losses of power distribution companies, the government is considering handing over urban areas with high AT&C losses to private sector on the input based franchisee model with the provision for investment by the franchisee for system improvement. Reducing the aggregate technical & commercial losses is going to be a critical component of this entire strategy. While there have been surfeits of schemes aimed at reduction of AT&C losses, the desired results are still far from being achieved. We are however, hopeful that the Government will give high priority to the power sector and put it back on a high growth trajectory path, while also providing a level playing field to Indian manufacturers to compete with imported equipment in the domestic market.

Aaditya Dhoot, Chairman, ELECRAMA 2016

"ELECRAMA is now a movement, beyond just an exhibition". How has the exhibition evolved over the last two decades?
As you said ELECRAMA has now turned into a movement, beyond just an exhibition. It is a premier show of Indian electrical sector and is the world?s largest confluence of the power transmission and distribution community. Held biennially since 1990 in India, the 11th edition ELECRAMA-2014 hosted 970 exhibitors from India and across the world and also attracted 100,000+ footfalls into the exhibition.

In the last two decades, ELECRAMA as an exhibition featured the biggest names in the global electrical T&D industry, to whom it serves as the perfect launch vehicle to introduce latest products and technology. ELECRAMA showcases products and technology through the entire voltage spectrum, from 220 V to 1200 kV, conforming to global standards and specifications. A large number of business and technology partnerships are also transacted during the 5-day period giving it a must attend event status amongst global exhibitions.

ELECRAMA visitors consist of a wide spectrum of industry stakeholders, offering them an international framework for display, discussions and deliberations. It brings together manufacturers and suppliers to interface with key customer segments like private and public transmission and distribution utilities, EPCs, consultants and specifiers, members of the government and policy makers. It also brings together global thought leaders in the electrical transmission and distribution sector consisting of industry leaders, engineering professionals & technologists, professionals and academia, all through high power panel discussions, premier conferences, technical workshops, tutorials and seminars held concurrently with the exhibition. ELECRAMA also hosts international diplomatic and trade visitor delegations from various countries and large country pavilions from leading manufacturing nations from around the world.

How effective is the ?Reverse Buyer-Seller Summit? that is now a regular feature at ELECRAMA?
IEEMA had so far conducted two international reverse buyer seller meet (RBSM) concurrently with ELECRAMA-2012 and ELECRAMA-2014. The 3rd International RBSM meet is scheduled concurrently with ELECRAMA-2016 at Bengaluru from February 13-17, 2016. ChangeXchange 2014 – 2nd RBSM, organised by IEEMA concurrently with ELECRAMA-2014 at Bangalore, was a resounding success. With more than 6,000 meetings done by foreign buyers, Indian Sellers (ELECRAMA-2014 exhibitors) expressed a great deal of satisfaction over business conducted at the RBSM resulting in an estimated business generation of over $150 million.

The RBSM was organised with support from the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, under the Market Access Initiative (MAI) Scheme. ChangeXchange 2014 was much bigger and power-packed than the first edition and was attended by 400+ buyers from 42 countries of Africa, ASEAN, Latin America, SAARC and Iran.

The business buzz was evident at the event and each foreign buyer did an average of 15 meetings per business session. Open only to the 800+ Indian manufacturers of electrical equipment showcasing their products and technology at ELECRAMA-2014, the world?s largest exhibition of transmission and distribution equipment, the flow of meetings was smooth and all major buyer cabins saw sellers patiently waiting for their turns.

Power utility companies were the top draws and key attendees includes The National Water and Electricity Company of Gambia, Central Electricity Board of Mauritius, Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd., Rural Electrification Board of Bangladesh, SBEE Benin, Kenya Power Lighting Company, Kenya Rural Electrification Authority, Electricity of Mozambique EDM, Transmission Company of Nigeria, Electricity Vietnam, ZESCO Zambia, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi, Hydrochile, etc. Procurement representatives of leading electrical equipment MNC companies such as ABB, Toshiba, Samsung etc. were also present at the event to explore sourcing opportunities from Indian suppliers.

IEEMA has launched a ?World Utility Summit? for this event. What is this concept?
ELECRAMA is a stellar platform for a world view on technology, best practices, new systems and forecasting the trends in the future of electricity, both from technology and a socio-economic point of view. A high quality thought platform World Utility Summit has been envisaged to bring together the top leadership from utilities from around the world to organise under an umbrella platform to share experiences, deliberate and explore solutions on pressing issues in the realm of transmission and distribution.Technically aligned participants can enrich themselves with plethora of seminars and conferences, notable of them being the tutorials organised with the support of CIGRE, is an international non-profit association for promoting collaboration with experts from all around the world by sharing knowledge and joining forces to improve electric power systems of today and tomorrow.

What about the status of space booking for ELECRAMA 2016? How is the response from overseas participants?
We have sold 80 per cent of the space for ELECRAMA 2016. Also we are receiving overwhelming responses from overseas participants as till now 15 countries have already participated and we are expecting further participation from 10-15 countries.