Need to Drive Demand for Locally Manufactured Equipment in the Country: Secretary, DPE

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K D Tripathi
K D Tripathi

There is need to drive demand for the locally manufactured equipment in India. We need to study the successful models from across the world and work on those models that suit the Indian scenario. This was stated by Shri Kapil Dev Tripathi, Secretary, Deptt. of Public Enterprises (DPE), Govt of India at the session on ‘Make in India —Incentivizing Renewable Energy Equipment Manufacturing for Exports’ at the first “Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet & Expo” (RE-Invest 2015) here today.

The panelists said that the Indian renewable industry manufacturing industry has ample opportunity to scale up under the government’s “Make in India” initiative. However, they raised the issue of financial support and incentives to match the competition from global manufacturing markets. .

Ms Ayumi Fujino, Region Head, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), said that Indian renewable energy sector presents huge potential for creating a robust manufacturing base. Highlighting the importance of ‘Make in India’, Ms Fujino stated that the initiative not only gels well for manufacturing in India, but it also provides opportunity for job creation. “There is huge potential in India. It has to be seen how that potential is utilised for maximum benefit,” said she. .

Shri Alok Srivastava, Additional secretary & CVO, Ministry of Shipping, Govt of India, stated that the Indian renewable industry is expected to grow significantly in the next decade under the ‘Make in India’ initiative. “The share of renewable energy generation is expected to increase from 6% currently to 15% by 2019. There is huge opportunity in solar, wind and hydro manufacturing,” said Mr Srivastava. He added that India needs to have a strong manufacturing base in order to be able to export and called for a financing model that suits best for the manufacturing industry. .

The experts were of the opinion that India could look forward to developing overseas market, as the domestic manufacturing needs to have good export prospects. Shri Tulsi Tanti, CMD, Suzlon Group of Companies said that the Indian manufacturers have huge opportunity for exporting to the developing countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. .

Shri Madhusudan Khemka, MD, ReGen Power, sounded optimistic with respect to wind turbine manufacturing in India. He stated that wind turbine technology is mature in India with highly recognised certification programme. India can easily fulfill the demands in the developing nations with its cost-effective technology that is tried and tested globally. .

In contrast to the wind manufacturing, the solar manufacturing in India has struggled amid competition from global oversupply and cheap imports from countries like China. Indian domestic manufactures had good share in the global solar market till 2010. However, it was after that the global oversupply and emergence of China led to downfall of India solar equipment manufactures. Shri HR Gupta, MD, IndoSolar Ltd., highlighted the agony of the solar manufacturers when he said that currently the export opportunity is very less. However, he expressed optimism in wake of ‘Make in India’ initiative and a target of installing 100 GW by 2022. .

Shri DV Manjunatha, Founder & MD, EMMVEE Solar, listed supply chain, taxation, absence of long-term funding and financing as major hurdles for development of solar manufacturing in India. He called for making full use of an initiative like ‘Make in India’ for manufacturing in renewables by providing incentives like China has done to boost its manufacturing industry. .

The panelist stressed the need for innovative financing model for encouraging manufacturing export and bringing down cost of production. Some of the panelists called for a special technology fund which can be utilised for upgradation and acquiring technology as well as for R&D activities. It was stated that there has to be a technology roadmap in place to nurture manufacturing industry in the country so that the scaled up renewable targets can be achieved. Shri Tripathy called for a synergy between industry, government, research institutes and academia to address the future challenges on the technology front. He said that China’s manufacturing industry has succeeded due to focused strategy adopted by the government, and India too needs to have a focused strategy for Indian domestic manufacturing industry to flourish. .

The session was chaired by Shri Kapil Dev Tripathi, Secretary, Deptt. of Public Enterprises, Govt of India and co-chaired by Shri Alok Srivastava, Additional secretary & CVO, Ministry of Shipping, Govt of India.

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