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SECTION
I - POLICY SCAN
ELCINA EMS Task Force Report
Launched by Mr. Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, MeitY
ELCINA constituted a Task Force to study the EMS
Sector and come up with a Research Report providing
details of the status and prospects of this ESDM
segment. The task force had representation from
MeitY & Invest India. The EMS Task Force commenced
deliberations in July 2020 and concluded the same in
November, coming up with valuable details such as
the sector’s current
size,
growth potential, exports and policies which impact
its progress.
Globally, EMS sector was valued at US$ 832 Bn in
2019 and estimated to grow to US$ 1055 Bn by 2025.
The Task Force report predicts that the Indian
EMS industry will gallop from US$ 23.5 Bn in 2019-20
to US$ 152 Bn by 2025. This effectively means that
it has the potential to grow from <3% of the global
industry to about 14% within 5 years. The global
EMS industry has grown very quickly during last
15-20 years as it has expanded the scope of its
activities for
the
Electronic Systems Design & Manufacturing (ESDM)
sector. From a small share of 10-15% in the ESDM
industry, EMS now straddles in excess of 40-45% of
its value. In addition to PCBA and pure assembly
services, EMS has now expanded to include research &
development, supply chain management, global
distribution, logistics, customer support and even
warranty repairs. There has been a complete
transformation of the role of EMS in the ESDM
industry globally.
Secretary Ministry of Electronics & IT, Government of India,
Mr Ajay Sawhney, while releasing the Report,
reinforced the need to manufacture PCB assemblies
within the country and reduce import dependence.
He said that there was plenty of opportunity for
utilising the existing Schemes
of NPE 2019 and additional Schemes which were being
promoted for other sectors, such as medical
electronics, defence and aerospace which had created
huge demand for electronics. Mr Sawhney mentioned
that there was a huge opportunity in products such
as Servers, Laptops, Tablets etc and encouraged
industry to take up these high value and large
volume products. He also informed that government
was keen to support expansion of the components
eco-system in the country and certain follow up
schemes were in the works to enable participation by
more domestic companies including the Medium and
Small enterprises.
Printed Circuit Board
Assemblies are at the core of every electronic
device. And constitute anywhere from
40-50% of the BOM of the device. To develop India as
an electronics manufacturing hub, it is crucial that
we expand the manufacturing ecosystem for EMS and
PCBA’s in India.
Key Findings of
EMS Task Force Report on Market & Industry Analysis
of EMS Sector of ESDM Industry
-
Currently EMS Industry (Contract Manufacturing
Services) are valued 832 Bn $ and are projected to
grow 1055 Bn by 2025.
-
Current estimate of EMS Industry in India is USD
23.5 Bn only which is <3% of global mfg. EMS
Industry has an estimated 700 Firms with about 600
Indian and 100 Multinational Companies.
-
China
exported US$ 685 Bn of electronics to the world
during 2019-20. There is huge export potential for
India EMS sector and govt has set a target of US$
100 Bn exports of mobiles alone by 2025. This is
driven by the PLI Scheme and targets about 25% of
the global mobile market valued at US$ 415 Bn.
-
In
Non-Mobile segment, China exported electronics
worth USD 50Bn to India friendly countries.
Government support of 5% will empower Indian EMS
sector to capture 30-40% of this, which is USD
15-20 Bn.
-
Domestic electronics manufacturing is estimated at
USD 75 Bn of which 39 Bn constitutes EMS value.
This is divided into 23.5 Bn domestic Mfg. and USD
15.5 Bn PCBS/Sub-Assembly imports.
-
Further USD 53.5 Bn is finished Electronic Goods
imports of which USD 17 Bn is EMS value. Thus
total EMS opportunity loss is US$ 32.5 Bn (15.5
+17).
-
We
estimate that EMS production can grow
realistically from USD 23.5 Bn today to USD 152 Bn
by 2025 at CAGR of 45%. This will meet 75% of the
countries EMS requirement of US$ 203 Bn by 2025
against a total estimated market of 400 Bn.
-
The
Industry is broadly categorized into HVLM (High
Volume Low Mix) which are the large global MNCs
and few large Indian Firms and the other category
is HMLV (High Mix Low Volume) largely constituted
by the Indian EMS Companies catering to lower
volume industrial/professional sector products.
-
HVLM &
HMLV have very different characteristics with
respect to volume, risk, automation, supply chain,
costs etc.
Note: The
detailed report is available with ELCINA
secretariat, please refer the Report section below.
TOP
SECTION
II - INDUSTRY SCAN
General
Smaller startups are poised to
drive social commerce in India
When Sonakshi Nathani saw her father struggle with
WhatsApp orders for his grocery store in Raipur in
Chhattisgarh, she decided to come to his rescue. The
young software developer founded a startup and
launched an app, Bikayi, to help sellers like him
increase their business. “I saw his WhatsApp chats
and noted his requirements to shape the product
where merchants can showcase their products," she
said. Barely one-and-a-half years old, Bikayi
suffered a brief lull in the initial days of the
lockdown but has been growing 100% thereafter,
onboarding a range of merchants from electronics
retailers to apparel makers to grocery stores,
mostly from tier-3 and tier-4 towns. As a WhatsApp
integrated commerce platform, Bikayi facilitates
sellers in creating their online stores and even
helps them manage their businesses. The company,
which raised $2 million as a part of its seed round
from a clutch of international investors, claims it
has more than 200,000 merchants on board doing daily
transactions worth more than ₹2 crore on the
platform. India is witnessing the rise of many more
social commerce startups and KIKO TV is another one
that recently pivoted from being a short-format
video-sharing app to a commerce platform. Its
founder Shivam Varshney, however, is targeting
tier-1 sellers and buyers for now as its main
offering is live-streaming and assisted shopping.
“High internet speed in these regions and
presentable selling skills of sellers in tier-1
towns is the twin logic behind preferring this
demographic at present," he said. The social
commerce opportunity was much bigger than short
videos in terms of a clear market size, Varshney
said.
(Mint, Dec 23, 2020)
TOP
A case for e-commerce export zones
Indian MSMEs must leverage e-commerce and
cross-border e-sales as a strategy to weather the
Covid pandemic storm. The pandemic has led to more
buying online from domestic as well as international
e-tailers. More consumers than ever before meet
their shopping needs by ordering online than walking
into a retail stores. As per UNCTAD estimates for
2018, the world market for e-commerce was $25.6
trillion. It also reports that the share of
cross-border online shoppers to all online shoppers
rose from 17 per cent in 2016 to 23 per cent in
2018. Though reliable statistics for India’s share
in cross-border e-commerce are not available, Amazon
announced that Indian goods clocked $5 billion
between 2015 and 2020, an indication of India’s
paltry share in global e-commerce. In global
e-commerce, consumer electronics and low cost
consumer goods such as clothing, home furnishings,
footwear, cosmetics, healthcare items, toys etc.
dominate. While India is not a mass producer in some
of these categories, the residual market size is
still sizeable. India should begin its global
e-commerce journey by expanding its share in
residual categories.
(BusinessLine, Dec 21, 2020)
TOP
Vocal for local! Mivi launches
its 1st Made in India Bluetooth speaker ROAM 2 - Top
features, price and more
Electronics brand, Mivi has launched its first Made
in India product! ROAM 2 which is the upgraded
version of ROAM 1.0 is the 1st Bluetooth speaker
which is fully Made in India. This is the first
product Mivi has been produced completely in India.
The company was previously designing and developing
the products in India and was getting the products
manufactured from other countries. Now, the company
has taken the fast strides into the manufacturing
space by setting up its own unit at Hyderabad. "This
also aligns with the Prime ministers’ Vocal for
Local and Aatma Nirbhar initiatives. The launch of
this plant marked the beginning of a new journey for
Mivi- to imagine, design, engineer and build locally
but also to compete at international standards,"
Mivi said in a statement. Midhula Devbhaktuni,
Co-Founder, Mivi, shared “Within a short span of
time Mivi has become a most sought out brand in the
Audio technology space. The market response and the
success of our products have propelled us to take
the plunge into manufacturing space and we have set
up fully integrated manufacturing unit in India and
soon we will be making all the products completely
in India. We are sure that this product will become
even bigger and successful than its predecessor Roam
1.0 and will soon become the most sought-after
Bluetooth speaker.”
(Business News, Dec 20, 2020)
TOP
Wistron admits to payment gaps
after Workers damage Bengaluru Apple Factory
After violence broke out at Apple’s contract
manufacturer Wistron’s iPhone manufacturing facility
near Bengaluru last week, the Taiwanese company has
admitted to some of the allegations by the agitating
workers. The violence at the factory is estimated to
have cost the company $7 Mn. Workers had complained
about being underpaid and not being paid for
overtime hours at the Wistron facility. Videos of
workers pelting stones at the factory quickly
emerged on social media, with many parts of the unit
seemingly set on fire. While nearly 7,000 people
have been named in charges for the violence by the
Karnataka police, now Wistron has admitted that it
did have payment irregularities. Wistron said that
it is restructuring its teams to ensure that such
incidents do not happen again. “Since the
unfortunate events at our Narasapura facility we
have been investigating and have found that some
workers were not paid correctly, or on time. We
deeply regret this and apologize to all of our
workers,” a Wistron spokesperson told ET.
Taking note of the mistakes, the company further
said that the Narasapura facility was new and it is
taking immediate action to correct this, including
disciplinary action against any employees who may be
involved. Wistron has already removed the company’s
vice-president who was responsible for overseeing
the business in India. “We are also enhancing our
processes and restructuring our teams to ensure
these issues cannot happen again,” Wistron told the
publication.
(INC4, Dec 19, 2020)
TOP
India has potential to become a lead player in
electronic manufacturing, says Ravi Shankar Prasad
India instituted the largest COVID-19 induced
lockdown in the world to battle the pandemic and
flatten the curve. In several months of social
distancing and isolation, people, businesses, and
national and state governments have deployed
technology to get an edge over the pandemic. To get
an insight into how Indian authorities have
leveraged technology to counter COVID-19, on this
episode of the Digital India Summit we have Ravi
Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of Law and Justice,
Electronics and Information Technology and
Communications. This fireside chat delves into key
learning from the exercise and lasting impressions
that will shape Government policy going forward.
Explaining how digital India has brought a change,
Prasad said: "Yesterday, I got a very disturbing
report of a farmer in Samastipur Bihar who was
crashing all his cauliflower because he wasn't
getting proper price at not even one rupee per kilo.
I connected to my common service centres, which are
the digital kiosk all over the country, nearly 4
lakh in number... They have developed a Market app
whereby they connect the farmers to the market. They
reached him and connected him to a Delhi market.
They agreed to purchase, send their vehicle,
collected all the cauliflowers, and gave him Rs 10
per Kg for 4,000 Kgs of cauliflowers. Rs. 40, 000
digitally paid, and the entire vegetable was sold in
Allahabad."
(ET, Dec 20, 2020)
TOP
West Bengal e-governance project e-Abgari wins
central govt. Digital India Award
The West Bengal government’s e-governance project e-Abgari
which focused on improving efficiency and
transparency has won Union government
instituted Digital India Awards for innovative steps
in e-governance. eAbgari project is one of the
strategic administrative reform initiative of West
Bengal State Excise Directorate. The project
leverages modern technology to enable seamless
online communication among all excise officials
across the state, all licensees, administrative
departments & other stakeholders through workflow
based systems hosted on state excise portal. So far
about seven states have already adopted this model.
“It gives me an immense pleasure to inform that
‘e-Abgari’ project of Excise Directorate, under the
Finance Department, has been declared as WINNER of
the prestigious DIGITAL INDIA AWARD-2020 for
exemplary and innovative initiatives in the realm of
Digital Governance,” West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee tweeted. “e-Abgari has been adjudged
as a National Best Practice and 7 states have
already adopted this model. Hon’ble President of
India will be conferring this award to the West
Bengal Team on 30th December,” she said in another
tweet.
(Tech Observer, Dec 20, 2020)
TOP
Information Technology & EV’s
Electronics retailers may have
lost out on 10-12% sales growth due to supply chain
issues in 2020
While on one hand demand surged for electronics this
year owing to the new normal of working and studying
from home, on the other hand, supply chain issues
affected stock availability. With a sudden steep
surge in demand in the past few months,
manufacturers faced a shortage in the supply of
critical components. This was because the demand
surge was a global phenomenon and raw material and
component manufacturers struggled to bridge the gap.
Additionally, border tensions between India and
China caused shipments to be held up longer at docks
for stringent checks that were put in place. Mitesh
Mody, President of the All India Electronics
Association (West Zone) said, "Instead of four to
eight weeks, goods are reaching Indian ports after
almost 16 weeks. That is a gap of over 12 weeks.
This has resulted in a shortage of goods like LED TV
panels. It has led to lesser production and the
availability of a few models of reputed brands has
been hit." Sales growth of entry-level laptops, TV
sets and smartphones were impacted the most as
demand jumped but stocks were scarce. Lack of
components and products also drove up prices,
pushing customers to defer purchases in a few cases.
(ET Now, Dec 23, 2020)
TOP
Digital India Summit 2020: Tete-e-tete with Ravi
Shankar Prasad
At the backdrop of Digital India Summit 2020, Times
Network engaged in a fireside chat with Ravi Shankar
Prasad to understand how technology has enabled the
governments to fight against COVID-19 On Digital
India Summit 2020, Ravi Shankar Prasad - Minister of
Law & Justice, Electronics & Information Technology
& Communications talks about how technology has
enabled the governments to fight against COVID-19,
and how Digital India has become a mass movement
with digitisation happening in manufacturing,
services, delivery and various other sectors. This
fireside chat delved into key learnings from the
exercise, and lasting impressions that will shape
the government's policy going forward.
(Times Now, Dec 23, 2020)
TOP
Digital India Awards 2020: Haryana wins e-gov award
for Antyodaya Saral project
Haryana government’s e-governance project —
Antyodaya Saral — won the Digital India Awards
2020 under the category — Excellence in Digital
Governance — State/UT. The award is scheduled to be
conferred on December 30 by President Ram Nath
Kovind. Antyodaya Saral is government to citizen
focused public service delivery online platform that
can be used to apply for over 549 schemes and
services of the state government. Currently,
services from 40 departments, boards and
corporations are being provided with the help of
Common Service Centre (CSC) and 117 Antyodaya Saral
Kendras. According to officials, Antyodaya Saral
portal — saralharyana.gov.in — receives more than
5.5 lakh applications every month. Besides, citizens
are sent more than 20 lakh proactive SMSes per month
informing them about the status of their
applications. A citizen can also find the status of
application via the online portal, similar to how
they would track the status of an e-commerce order.
This project had also bagged ‘Gold Award’ in the
category of ‘Excellence in providing Citizen-centric
Delivery’ at the 23rd National Awards ceremony for
e-Governance in February 2020.
(Tech Observer, Dec 23, 2020)
TOP
India through its public
digital platform is driving a low-cost inclusive
digitalization model
Dr Ajai Garg, Senior Director, MeitY : NASSCOM
CoE-IoT & AI organized ‘Voice of Manufacturing
Edition 6 – Digital Transformation in Manufacturing
Value Chain’ to bring out the larger economic
perspective of the manufacturing industry linked
with Digital India Mission. The manufacturing
leaders talked about digital maturity, viability,
and ability to adopt digital offerings across their
value chain bringing tangible impacts or return on
investment (RoI). Deepak Bagla, MD & CEO, Invest
India Org, delivered a keynote address on ‘Taking a
leap into next normal in Industry & Innovation’.
“We are at an inflection point in history as we are
growing and experiencing an unprecedented change in
history. The pace and scale of the changes have been
stupendous. Manufacturing is subset of everything
around it. When lockdown was announced we didn’t
have PPE suits and we were looking at other
countries, but by July we were exporting PPEs and
ventilators. Most profound impact of digitization
has been on governance,” said Bagla. The first
session of VoM 6 was on ‘Industry Economic Growth &
Digital Vision’ which saw participation of Dr Ajai
Garg, Senior Director, Ministry of Electronics and
Information Technology (MeitY); MP Dubey, Joint
Director, STPI (AP); Pranjal Sharma, economic
analyst, author and advisor, World Economic Forum (WEF);
Dr Shishir Shrotriya, Counsellor (Science &
Technology), Embassy of India in Moscow; and Ravi
Aggarwal, President, Automation Industry Association
(AIA).
(BW Smartcities, Dec 21, 2020)
TOP
Is Indonesia Attracting Global Digital Investments
Ahead Of India?
Singapore, December 21 (ANI): There has been a
recent upsurge of interest in the growing digital
economy of Southeast Asia's largest economy,
Indonesia. The archipelago nation of Indonesia
stretches across four time zones, 17,500 islands and
over 5,120 kilometres east to west. It has the
world's fourth-largest population and one of the
world's fastest-growing middle classes with a GDP of
USD 1 trillion, which accounts for one-third of
Southeast Asia's economic output. The size of
Indonesia's middle class is estimated by the World
Bank to be 52 million people or about 20 per cent of
its 270 million populations. In comparison, those
defined to be in India's middle class is
approximately 350 million or 25 per cent of the
population which is significantly higher than
Indonesia's. Indonesia's GDP is also dwarfed by
India's USD 2.8 trillion but with a population five
times smaller, Indonesia has a much higher per
capita GDP. Latest data from the Asian Development
Bank shows that, India's economy is expected to
bounce back to grow by 8 per cent in 2021. Whereas
Indonesia's economy suffered a mere one per cent
decline and expected to recover and grow at 5.3 per
cent next year. Based on this, Indonesia's economy
appears to have weathered the COVID-19 disruptions.
This is reflected in foreign direct investments this
year. The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
said in June this year that foreign direct
investment (FDI) in India was USD 650 million for
the first quarter of this year, about 13 per cent of
the USD 51 billion for the full year of 2019.
Majority of this is in digital tech companies and
businesses.
(BusinessWorld, Dec 21, 2020)
TOP
Samsung@25: How Samsung is
powering Digital India
Samsung completed 25 years in India in December this
year. It has now unveiled a new vision for further
growth in India, driven by a refreshed local R&D
strategy and new manufacturing initiatives. In the
mid-1990s, just a few years after India liberalised
its economy and embarked on an era of globalisation,
a few Korean companies made their debut here.
Daewoo, Hyundai,
Samsung and LG Electronics set up shop in India. The
India growth story had just started and consumer
electronics and auto industries were expected to
boom, thanks to rising disposable incomes. So when
Samsung celebrated its 25th anniversary in India
this month, it wasn’t just about remembering those
early days, but also about how some brands
successfully navigated the challenges in the Indian
market. Samsung today is one of the largest consumer
facing companies in India, and the number one
smartphone and TV brand. When Samsung came to India,
it was a little known brand. But so strongly did
Samsung’s management believe in the India growth
story that it not only decided to set up a
manufacturing unit in Noida, it had the vision to
set up R&D units in Bengaluru way back in 1996. The
Indian economy was at $360 billion in 1995. In 2019,
it became the world’s fifth largest economy at $2.94
trillion, surpassing the UK and France. According to
RoC data, Samsung’s revenues grew from $6 million in
1996 to $10 billion in 2019. This is outstanding
growth, and a shining example of an MNC doing all
the right things to win over Indian consumers.
(FE, Dec 21, 2020)
TOP
What will FCA’s $150 mn Global
Digital Hub have in store for India?
India is slowly emerging as an epicentre for
automotive engineering and research & development
(R&D) centres. Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Honda
motorcycles and a host of auto component makers like
Bosch, Continental, ZF and Visteon have their
centres in the country and the latest to join this
club is Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). The
automaker, on December 16, announced its plan to
invest $150 million (around INR 1,103 crore) to set
up an all-inclusive ‘Global Digital Hub’ named FCA-ICT
in Hyderabad. FCA has pitched this centre as a
transformation and innovation hub with a vision to
develop products for future mobility and sharpen
efforts to enhance customer-centricity. The facility
is the company’s largest Digital Hub outside of
North America and EMEA. In a media interaction,
Partha Datta, Karim Lalani and Mamatha Chamarthi
share their plans for this global digital hub and
how it will be catering to the Indian market. The
core vision for this centre is to drive digital
transformation and build FCA ICT India will be
employing 1,000 people by the end of 2021.in-house
capability, competencies and domain expertise for
FCA. Karim Lalani, Director and Head of FCA ICT
India highlighted, “The centre is expected to be
able to own end-to-end capabilities. We have been
relying on external providers in the past. Now we
will be working to change that status from external
to building internal capabilities required for FCA
to be able to deliver to the customer-centric
vision.”
(ET, Dec 21, 2020)
TOP
Telecom
Zuckerberg calls India very
special country, looks to push WhatsApp payments
services deeper
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on
Tuesday said India is a very special and important
country with a remarkable entrepreneurship culture,
as he sought to push deeper the just-launched
payments services that allow users to make payments
over WhatsApp. Last month, Facebook-owned WhatsApp
received approval from the National Payments
Corporation of India (NPCI) for rolling out its
payments services in India. In 2018, WhatsApp
started testing its UPI-based payments services in
India -- a global first -- with about a million
users. "We just launched WhatsApp payments in India
last month -- now you can send money to your friends
and family through WhatsApp, as easily as sending a
message. That was possible because of the UPI system
that has been built in India," Zuckerberg said
during a fireside chat with Reliance Industries
Chairman Mukesh Ambani. He said the Unified Payments
Interface (UPI) makes it easy for anyone to
instantly accept payments across different apps.
(ET, Dec 15, 2020)
Apple supplier Wistron puts
India plant damage at up to $7 million
The ransacking of an iPhone manufacturing
facility in India caused up to T$200 million ($7.12
million) in damage though production facilities were
not as badly hit as reported, its Taiwan-based
operator Wistron Corp said. Thousands of contract
workers gathered on the grounds of the Wistron site
on the outskirts of India's tech hub of Bengaluru on
Saturday demanding unpaid wages and better working
hours. As police arrived, the crowd turned violent
and video from the scene showed people armed with
rods and sticks smashing equipment and vandalizing
cars. In a police report seen by Reuters, Wistron
estimated damages worth $60 million. However, in a
statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Tuesday,
the company said major production facilities and
warehouses had not suffered as serious damage as
reported by local media, and that it was initially
estimating losses at T$100-200 million. The company
is doing its utmost to get the plant back up and
running, it said. Wistron shares fell around 2.5% in
early Asia trade, underperforming Taiwan's broader
stock market.
(ET, Dec 15, 2020)
TOP
RS
Prasad meets Micron CEO; company to set up Centre of
Excellence in India
US-based memory
chipmaker Micron Technologies will set up a Centre
of Excellence with the government of India. “Held a
very meaningful discussion with CEO
of Micron Technology Sanjay Mehrotra on further
development of design, research and manufacturing of
memory and storage systems,” Electronics and IT
minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a tweet on
Monday. “Micron
is very positive about growing the electronics
manufacturing industry in India and is considering
increasing its presence in India. Micron has agreed
to set up a Center of Excellence in memory and
storage systems in India with Govt. of India,” he
said.
(ET, Dec 14, 2020)
Huawei launches
cloud-based CDN in India
Chinese telecoms gear maker Huawei Monday
launched its cloud-based Content Delivery
Network (CDN) solution in India for businesses. The
gear vendor said that the CDN solution will enable
businesses to serve users across industries such as
Media & OTT, Banking & Financial Institutions;
Education; E-Commerce; Online Travel & Hospitality;
Healthcare; Online Gaming; Digital Marketing; and
Government. The CDN, powered by Huawei’s Intelligent
Hubble monitoring system, will enable
businesses to deliver high-quality services with
“near-zero outages” across data formats such as
images, videos, AR/VR, amongst others, said Huawei.
As per Huawei, it has deployed over 2,500
Acceleration Nodes globally with more than 100 Tbps
bandwidth spanning across a network of over 74
Telcos across 130 countries, serving over 1 billion
end-users. “We have launched the Cloud CDN services
to empower Indian businesses to deliver the best
user web-experience. Our operations and resources in
India are backed by robust local talent and are
designed to meet any customer requirements most
suitable for local needs.
(ET, Dec 14, 2020)
TOP
The world watches as India
tries a hard 30% cap to avoid tech's anti-trust
troubles
From Washington to Beijing, governments are trying
to strike the right balance between enabling
technology innovation and preventing giants like
Google and Facebook Inc. from suffocating rivals.
Now India is experimenting with a framework for
financial technology that’s certain to provide
lessons worldwide — succeed or fail. The country’s
unique approach is to decree limits on fintech
competitors from the start: No single player can
grab more than 30% of total payments transactions.
Every company also has to use India’s open payments
platform, guaranteeing interoperability so money can
be transferred between any of more than 100
traditional banks and digital services like Google
Pay — all without fees. That structure, unveiled in
November, gave India’s regulators the confidence to
approve a new payment service from WhatsApp, the
Facebook unit’s initial effort to enable digital
payments for more than a billion users worldwide.
(ET, Dec 02, 2020)
TOP
Defence
& Solar
Need for a comprehensive
review of defence offset polic
The recent review report of the CAG on defence
offsets highlights the inability of the ministry of
defence (MoD) to leverage its huge buying power to
enable the domestic defence industry to acquire
cutting edge technologies, which are so critical for
achieving self-reliance. It also points to the fact
that the costs the country has had to incur in
making offsets a part of high-value defence
contracts have given the country poor returns. The
defence offset policy seeks to leverage capital
acquisitions to develop the Indian defence industry.
Offsets are applicable when the estimated cost of
acquisition is Rs 2,000 crore or more (Rs 300 crore
till 2015). It requires foreign and Indian vendors
of certain category to buy components from Indian
manufacturers or invest in Indian enterprises in the
form of equity or transfer of technology (ToT) or
equipment, provide equipment or ToT to government
institutions or establishments or to DRDO to the
extent of 30% of the estimated contract value.
Offsets have to be discharged annually during the
contract period with extension up to two years. The
CAG found that out of the offsets worth Rs 19,223
crore due for discharge by 2018, only 59% (Rs 11,396
crore) had been discharged, leaving a large gap of
41%.
(ET, Dec 26, 2020)
TOP
Defence minister Rajnath Singh
hands over 3 DRDO systems to chiefs of armed forces
New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh handed
over three systems developed by the Defence Research
and Development Organisation to chiefs of the three
armed forces on Friday, said an official statement.
Singh handed over the Indian maritime situational
awareness system (IMSAS) to Navy Chief Admiral
Karambir Singh at an event here, the Defence
Ministry's statement said. The IMSAS is a software
system that provides global maritime situational
picture, marine planning tools and analytical
capabilities to the Indian Navy, the statement
noted. The minister handed over the Astra Mk-1
missile system to Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria,
the statement said. This missile is the first
indigenously developed beyond visual range (BVR)
missile that can be launched from Sukhoi-30 and
other fighter aircraft. Singh handed over the Border
Surveillance System (BOSS), which is an all-weather
electronic surveillance system, to Army Chief
General M M Naravane at the event here.
(ET, 18 Dec, 2020)
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Defence Ministry approves
acquisition of military hardware worth Rs 28,000
crore
New Delhi: The defence ministry has given its nod
for the acquisition of weapon systems worth Rs
28,000 crore, including an indigenous programme to
develop a large Airborne Early Warning and Control
System (AWACS) and next generation offshore patrol
vessels. The go ahead was given by the Rajnath
Singh-led Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), with Rs
27,000 crore worth of systems to be developed
indigenously. Source said that an order for Israeli
origin suicide drones has also been taken ahead.
(ET, 17 Dec 2020)
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Batteries and hydrogen to make
residential off-grid PV technically feasible
Scientists at the Lappeenranta
University of Technology (LUT) in Finland have found
that residential off-grid PV solutions are
technically feasible in northern climates only if
coupled simultaneously with short-term battery
storage and seasonal hydrogen storage, and if the
household’s peak consumption is not too high. In the
paper Technical feasibility evaluation of a solar PV
based off-grid domestic energy system with battery
and hydrogen energy storage in northern climates,
published in Solar Energy, the research team
simulated a model for a similar approach in an
existing single-family house in Finland with a 21 kW
rooftop array and a ground source 6 kW heat pump for
heating that is incorporated in the electricity
consumption. Data on hourly average power data for
PV electricity generation and electricity
consumption were collected for three years from
January 2017 to December 2019. “The capacity of the
PV system is sized to the point where further
improvement in self-sufficiency by increasing PV
peak power is no longer feasible,” they further
explained, adding that the home’s self-sufficiency
was found to be 36.81%, which is in line with values
of all northern European countries. The average
annual surplus PV power was estimated at around
200%.
(PV Magazine, Dec 23, 2020)
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Telangana plans solar-powered
floating restaurants and boats on water bodies
Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation
Limited has invited bids for the supply and erection
of solar-powered floating restaurants and boats at
various water bodies (lakes, rivers and reservoirs)
in Telangana State. The work scope includes design,
engineering and preparation of drawings,
manufacturing, supply, transportation, and erection
of the solar-powered floating restaurants and boats.
The floating restaurants should have sufficient
Li-ion battery storage to power utility loads
(air-conditioners, pantry equipment, ventilators,
general lighting, etc) continuously for six hours on
a single charge. The batteries shall be charged by
solar power and AC current from the shore.
Similarly, the boats (required in single and double
decks) should have sufficient Li-ion battery power
to operate the main motors at full load and other
utility loads (ventilators, general lighting, etc)
continuously for six hours on a single charge. The
restaurants must be designed to have double decks.
The main deck will have air-conditioned space and
all setups, including tables, chairs, Sofas, pantry,
etc. The upper deck should have open space with a
guardrail/suitable guard on all the sides for
passenger safety.
(PV Magazine, Dec 23, 2020)
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Vikram Solar module factory
gets a rooftop PV plant
Module manufacturer and EPC contractor Vikram
Solar has commissioned a rooftop solar project at
its manufacturing facility in Falta, West Bengal.
The 919.73 kWp plant consists of 2,574 solar panels
ranging from 325Wp to 400Wp and covers an area of
6,500 square meters. Vikram Solar’s annual PV
module production capacity stands at 1.2 GW. The
solar plant will generate 1,350.58 MWh of
electricity per year and meet more than 27% of the
entire manufacturing unit’s electricity consumption
during regular daytime operation. It will help to
avoid 1,645 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. The
plant uses 12 different types of modules,
including SOMERA monocrystalline, half-cut and
full-cut cell modules manufactured by Vikram Solar.
Speaking about the project, Saibaba Vutukuri, CEO,
Vikram Solar, said, “This rooftop project was
envisioned not only to cater to the captive energy
requirements of our manufacturing unit but also to
make it a green energy unit and enabling India’s
transition to a low-carbon economy.” “The project
showcases Vikram Solar’s multiple technologies in
solar PV modules, inverter, and robotic cleaning
systems driven by soiling sensors at a single
location and will result in a total saving of about
INR 98.8 lakh per annum on energy. These
state-of-art technologies ensure better performance
and higher energy yield. We hope that
self-sustaining initiatives like this will inspire
others to embrace the path to reducing carbon
footprint,” he added.
(PV Magazine, Dec 23, 2020)
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Exro validates intelligent
battery technology for second life applications
Canada’s Exro Technologies Inc., a clean technology
company which has developed a new class of power
electronics for electric motors and batteries, is
pleased to announce that it has completed the
technology validation on its Battery Control System
(“BCS”) – formerly known as the intelligent battery
management system. The BCS can expand the
capabilities of batteries by enabling a greater
depth of control on the cells. The cells remaining
in a battery at the end of first life can be
optimized to rejuvenate the same battery into a new
second life. Exro can establish a greater depth of
control on battery cells because the same principles
that govern coil groupings in electric motors can
also apply to managing cells in a battery. As more
electric vehicle batteries reach end of first life,
there is a growing number of batteries that can be
utilized for second life energy storage. The BCS can
help Exro to lead the rapidly accelerating energy
storage markets. Second life energy storage is a
dynamic growth market with CAGR projections of 23.1%
through 2030. Simulations in the lab have
demonstrated the principles required for optimized
second life operations.
(PV Magazine, Dec 23, 2020)
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Consumer Electronics
Prices of TV and appliances
likely to go up by around 10% from January
"We expect the increase in commodity prices to
impact our product pricing in near future. I
anticipate the prices to go up by 6-7 per cent in
January itself and may go up to 10-11 per cent
towards end of FY Q1," said Panasonic India
President & CEO Manish Sharma.New Delhi: Prices for
LED TV and appliances such as refrigerator, washing
machines are expected to go up by around 10 per cent
from January next year on account of rise in costs
of key input materials like copper, aluminium and
steel and increase in ocean and air freights
charges. Besides, prices of TV panels (Opencell)
have also gone up by over two-folds due to short
supply by the global vendors, while cost of plastic
has also gone up due to rise in crude oil prices,
said manufacturers. Terming it as imminent and
unavoidable, manufacturers such as
LG, Panasonic and Thomson are going to increase
the prices from January, however, Sony is still
reviewing the situation and is yet to take a call on
this.
(ET, Dec 27, 2020)
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Dixon Tech to set up factory
in south for ICT hardware
The home-grown electronics manufacturing services
(EMS) player, which already produces smart TVs, LED
lighting, washing machines and mobile phones, has
zeroed in on a factory down south as part of the
expansion plan. Dixon Technologies, India’s
second-largest contract manufacturer for consumer
electronics, is foraying into information &
communications technology (ICT) hardware, including
laptops, desktops, tablets and servers, and is set
to open a factory in south India for it, a top
executive said. The home-grown electronics
manufacturing services (EMS) player, which already
produces smart TVs, LED lighting, washing machines
and mobile phones, has zeroed in on a factory down
south as part of the expansion plan. “We are keenly
awaiting the guidelines of the recently announced
PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme for ICT
hardware, which will decide our investment and
output plans,” Sunil Vachani, chairman of Dixon,
told ET. He said Dixon is in talks with leading
global and domestic laptop, desktop and tablet
brands to shift their production to India once the
PLI scheme kicks off. “Now that India has achieved
scale and self-dependence for assembly of mobile
phone handsets, the next target is ICT hardware.”
(ET, Dec 24, 2020)
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Nokia air conditioners launched at a starting price
of Rs 30,999, to be available via Flipkart: “
The air conditioners are designed, engineered, and
manufactured entirely in India and are uniquely
tailored to ensure longevity and durability,
especially with its blue-fin anti-corrosive
technology,” the company says.Nokia has launched air
conditioners in India marking the company’s entry
into the home appliances segment in the country. The
new range of Nokia branded ACs comes with a starting
price of Rs 30,999 and will be available via
e-commerce site Flipkart. Those interested can buy
the newly launched Nokia branded ACs from December
29. “The air conditioners are designed, engineered,
and manufactured entirely in India and are uniquely
tailored to ensure longevity and durability,
especially with its blue-fin anti-corrosive
technology,” the company says. Nokia ACs come
equipped with smart technology and interoperability
that can monitor climatic conditions. Nokia says
that the ACs can also eliminate impurities from the
air indoors, and are energy efficient as well. Nokia
air conditioners come with features. These include
an adjustable inverter mode, environment-friendly
R-32 refrigerant, intelligent motion sensors and
wi-fi connected Smart climate control.
(ET, Dec 24, 2020)
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