Equipment manufacturing likely to grow by 15-20%

India's growth momentum is taking a positive turn in the backdrop of measures like Make in India, says Suramya Nevatia, CEO, Hind Rectifiers, in an interview with POWER TODAY.

How much funds are likely to be pumped into power electronics and power conversion equipment?
In any given project - be it power, solar, wind, railway or process industry - the share of electrical scope is approximately 30 per cent in which 10 per cent would be for power electronics and 20 per cent towards conversion and general electrical equipments. The remaining 70 per cent would be 40 per cent for civil and 30 per cent for mechanical. However, there is no clear statistics available on the money being spent since this depends on government policy.

Share your views on India's likely growth in equipment manufacturing.
The country's growth momentum is taking a positive turn which can be largely attributed to the "Make in India" campaign. Equipment manufacturing and capital goods sector are likely to grow by 15-20 per cent. Power electronics and conversion are playing a significant role in today's situation since India is going through a technological change wherein the focus is more towards energy efficiency, compact design of equipment and automation.

What factors have contributed to the upsurge of the company's net sales?
Projects, which were held up for several months, may be even years, are getting cleared. Railways are increasing their requirement in a significant manner - it is almost two fold. We have increased our product portfolio and introduced several innovative products during the last two years. Meanwhile, we have introduced innovative concepts and designs with modern manufacturing techniques to increase operational efficiency which will only enhance in the near future.

How do you plan to increase your order book in the upcoming quarters?
We plan to fortify our order book through continuous tenders from railways and upcoming infrastructure projects. We're also expecting more big orders.  Meanwhile, with an ever increasing demand from the market, we have balanced our supply capacity from all three plants. Earlier, 80 per cent of the weight was on Mumbai. With this, we have been able to mitigate or diversify the risk of operational bottlenecks. We expect a monumental increase in Q1 and Q2 compared to the last financial year. It could be somewhere close to 50 per cent.