India has taken a big leap in energy efficiency, with significant improvement in both supply-side and demand-side management in the past five years; the challenge now is to increase storage capacity and reduce T&D losses, says Renjini Liza Varghese.

Balakrishnan Natarajan, Managing Director, EPCOS India, TDK Group, is bullish about the future prospects for India's electrical and electronics industry. This enthusiasm reflects in the diverse range of products the company offers in the Indian market.

Electric Vehicles (EVs) offer a promising technology pathway for cutting down oil use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on a per-kilometre basis. EVs can achieve 50 g of CO2 emission per kilometre compared to the conventional, internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, which emit between 100 and 150 g of CO2 per kilometre.

Yes of course! Energy Efficiency Services (EESL)'s procurement of smart meters have already started pushing down the cost. In November-December, last year, EESL has come out with a large tender, and I remember, an announcement of 14 per cent lower pricing than the earlier tenders.

Elecrama 2018 was not merely an exhibition. It reflected the industry sentiment. Looking at the numbers- Rs 65 billion of business queries generated, footfall of around 298,000 and 1,200 exhibitors-it seems all is well with the power sector.

India for us is a very important market because of being the fastest growing globally. In our global automation portfolio, we have one of our factories in Goa where we not only design and develop products for India, but also for the global market.

Until last 10 years, we were a power deficient country. We did not have enough power to serve our citizens. Now, we are not only a power surplus country, but are now talking of exporting power. In addition, India is becoming a major renewable hub with solar contributing lion's share.

Our research and development (R&D) teams are constantly working towards designing and developing integrated solutions focused on the smart energy efficient products catering to the Smart Cities initiative by the government.

The growth in power demand accelerated significantly in the current financial year. UDAY is certainly a key contributor to this because the immediate savings in cost (the restructuring plan, on an estimated basis, reduced interest costs by as much as 47 paise per kWh), allowed utilities to maintain tariffs at lower levels, thus attracting more marginal consumers.