Outpace China’s supremacy in manufacturing sector.

June 29, 2015 1:04 pm

We will have to keep up to our strengths to outpace China’s supremacy in the manufacturing sector.
Amar Kaul, Territory Vice President and Business Leader – India, Middle East and South Africa, Compressed Air Systems and Services, Ingersoll Rand
 Ingersoll Rand, one of the global leaders in compressed air technology, is committed to product innovation and design for industrial technologies, food safety, energy efficiency and sustainability. In an interview with OEM Update, Amar Kaul, Territory Vice President and Business Leader – India, Middle East and South Africa, Compressed Air Systems and Services, Ingersoll Rand highlights the recipe for ‘Make in India’.
Anticipates healthy growthThe ‘Make in India’ program focuses on new initiatives designed to facilitate investment, foster innovation, protect intellectual property, and build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure. It encourages companies as well as entrepreneurs, whether big or small, to manufacture their products in India. ‘Make in India’ campaign together with some specific steps taken like ease of doing business, phased reduction of corporate tax, government’s resolve of rolling out GST, and investments in infrastructure development will boost the Indian economy.
Air compressor is an integral part of more than 90 per cent of industries and is considered the 4th utility. So, the growth in manufacturing will fuel the demand of air compressors as well. “Last year was a challenging year for industrial air compressor industry with the industry shrinking by approximately 10 per cent from 2013. We expect the ‘Make in India’ initiative will make this industry grow at a healthy CAGR in coming years,” says Mr Kaul.
Success formulaThe ‘Make in India’ campaign looks very promising since the time it was launched last year. According to Mr Kaul, few highs about the initiative are certain measures which shall help in increasing GDP growth, tax revenue, cut on duties on various goods, aiming good quality standards and to attracting investment in India for development.
Also, global investors who were looking for a stable government to start their business in India now have that need fulfilled which will definitely help kick-start FDI. “To sustain and grow the flow, Indian government would need to change rules, regulations and policies to make it investor friendly,” he adds.
In a survey done by the World Bank for 189 countries, India currently ranks 134 for ease of doing business, 186 for enforcing contracts and 179 for starting a business and this reflects on the room for improvement. “With the steps taken by the Government of India, we should be able to improve this substantially,” Mr Kaul asserts.
Challenges before ‘Make in India’There are several challenges before ‘Make in India’ campaign. Creating healthy business environment and ease of doing business are prominent challenges. “We will have to keep up to our strengths to outpace China’s supremacy in the manufacturing sector,” Mr Kaul opines.
Manufacturing sector still has a long way to go when it comes to world-class R&D and innovation. The industry still relies a lot on the technology from US, Europe and Japan.
While talking about the finance-related issue, Mr Kaul says, “RBI did cut interest rate to 7.5 per cent from 8 per cent, but a further cut is needed to encourage companies to invest in manufacturing.”
He adds, “Infrastructure is not up to the global standards with power shortage, inadequate road / rail network, insufficient sea ports all adding to the challenges.”
Ingersoll Rand’s initiatives toward ‘Make in India’‘Make in India’ program includes initiatives designed to facilitate investment, foster innovation, protect intellectual property, and build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure.
Last year, Ingersoll Rand announced an investment of Rs 100 crores to upgrade its manufacturing facility in Naroda, near Ahmedabad in Gujarat. The work is progressing and the company is positive that this strategic investment will further reinforce its overall growth strategy in India and focus on driving innovation, technology and product development. Products and solutions manufactured at the Naroda plant will be distributed across both, Indian as well as global markets.
In addition, Ingersoll Rand has made significant investments in R&D. It runs a DSR approved laboratory in Naroda which is benchmarked against Ingersoll Rand’s global R&D facilities on regular basis for accuracy and consistency. The company tests its entire range of products in this lab for performance and reliability. It also operates Engineering Technology Centres in Bengaluru and Chennai.Ingersoll Rand has filed several patents from India for the product innovation. Through its R&D infrastructure in India, it has introduced several new products like Evolution brand contact cooled rotary screw air compressors, new generation environment friendly and energy efficient refrigerated airdryers and new platform of integrated plug ‘n’ play centrifugal compressors, which are best in class with multiple patents, Mr Kaul informed.
Often compressed air systems in factories and facilities are not energy efficient. System owners have great opportunities to improve operating margins and reduce costs through energy savings. As every industry tries to cut down costs, audits of compressed air systems help in reducing hidden costs and ultimately contribute to increase in savings.
“Ingersoll Rand’s Audit Solutions offers services that help our customers identify potential leakages and take corrective actions to conserve energy. Some of the real cases after acting on actions from energy audit have had pay back of less than 6 months after which is pure savings,” Mr Kaul sums up.