India – The Global Destination for Industrial Manufacturers

June 16, 2010 5:35 am

“Indian manufacturing sector is reaching new heights in terms of delivery, quality and cost. We see Indian manufacturing as a global destination for sectors like automobiles, electronics, IT hardware, textiles, and others. Growing at the rate of 4 per cent, the manufacturing industry in India stands at USD 340 billion (approx) and contributes significantly to India’s GDP – almost 26 per cent.” Pratik Chube, Country General Manager – Product Management & Marketing, Emerson Network Power (India) Pvt. Ltd. highlights.
 
Emerson is a global leader in bringing technology and engineering together to provide innovative solutions to customers through its network power, process management, industrial automation, climate technologies, and appliance & tools businesses. Please tell us about your commitment to the Indian industry?
Emerson Network Power (India) Pvt. Ltd., (formerly Tata Liebert Ltd) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Emerson Electric USA, a US $ 20.9 billion company that is ranked 94th on the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest companies. Set up in September 1993, the Indian subsidiary has seen a consistent growth rate of more than 30 per cent p.a., over the last 16 years.
After the transitioned in to Emerson Network Power India in 2001, the company has made a conscious effort to align itself with its global parent. Emerson is the only company that offers the broadest range of solutions i.e.  Power, Cooling, Rack, Monitoring & Data Center Solutions. In addition, Emerson also provides Power audit solutions to companies. Emerson has moved from being a UPS and Precision AC manufacturer to a Global Leader in enabling Business Critical Continuity solutions.
 
How do you find the potential for your kind of business in India?
India is a growing market and there are multiple investment opportunities in infrastructure, power, and other core sectors. This development coupled with increased investment in IT infrastructure will help us cater to the market even better. Initiatives like National e-Governance Program and JnNURM are positive indicators of the Government’s commitment in this direction. What is even more heartening is the focus on energy efficiency and on products delivering the same.
What are the market segments the Emerson Network Power is catering to?
Our solutions cater to an array of large enterprises spanning across Government, BFSIs, BPOs, Education, Industrial Process Control Rooms, Food Processing Industries, Broadcast Facilities, Building Services Control Rooms, Surveillance & Monitoring Centers and Retail Malls.
 
Can you brief us about your ‘Energy Logic’ concept?
In mid-2008, Emerson pioneered the concept of Energy Logic for datacenters. The company started to analyze the available energy-saving opportunities and identified the top ten. The model demonstrated that reduction in energy consumption at the IT equipment level have the greatest impact on overall consumption because they cascade across all supporting systems. This led to the development of Energy Logic, a vendor-neutral roadmap for optimizing data center energy efficiency that starts with the IT equipment and progresses to the support infrastructure. Energy Logic can help an organization deliver a 50per cent or greater reduction in data center energy consumption without compromising performance or availability.
This approach has the added benefit of removing the three most critical constraints faced by data center managers today: power, cooling and space. In the model, the 10 Energy Logic strategies freed up two-thirds of floor space, one-third of UPS capacity and 40 percent of precision cooling capacity.
All of the technologies used in the Energy Logic approach are available today in India and many can be phased into the data center as part of regular technology upgrades/refreshes, minimizing capital expenditures. The model also identified some gaps in existing technologies that could enable greater energy reductions and help organizations make better decisions regarding the most efficient technologies for a particular data center.
 
How competitive is the Indian market for your business? What is your market share?
The Indian market has multiple opportunities and attracts multiple players – global as well as local – giving rise to healthy competition. But our widely-recognized edge in technology and a proven track-record of delivering custom fit products to enable business critical and mission critical continuity elevates Emerson to a class of its own. We are market and technology leaders in every product category that we operate in. 
 
Which is that one Industry segments your Company finds huge potential in Indian market?
Key business drivers can be broadly classified into small-scale manufacturing industries, food processing industries, metals & mining and textiles.  However, we will continue to focus on telecom, IT, BFSI and Infrastructure as our key segments with sustained marketing initiatives. At the same time we expect healthcare, education, and government segments to generate a lot of potential for our market. Other key sectors witnessing robust growth in the past are retail and logistics. The scenario presents an ideal business opportunity for us to significantly drive down energy consumption and optimize power and cooling capacity to support growth. We also maintain that emergence and increased penetration of SMEs will further boost Emerson’s growth vision for India.
 
What are the segments remain untapped for your Company so far?
Emerson is present in every segment where power is required. We have developed capabilities to serve our customers’ unique power and infrastructure needs through custom-built solutions. Telecom, manufacturing, IT/ITES, infrastructure, retail, BFSI, processing and critical medical applications, education and government are fuelling the demand for UPSs, where as sectors such as entertainment, and SMEs/SMBs will eventually drive volumes. However, in this networked economy no one can afford to function without uninterrupted power supply.
 
Do you have any manufacturing facilities in India?
Yes, we have manufacturing facilities in Navi Mumbai and Thane.
 
Would you like to share your perception about the Industrial manufacturing sector of India? What are the major roadblocks in growth of this sector?
With increase in working population and rise of skilled labour, India has become a favorable ground for manufacturers across the globe. The growing consumer base is another reason why MNCs are keen on producing and selling in India. Their focus is on high production volumes, which can only be achieved with sound infrastructure – invariably a vital ingredient for the sector’s growth.
For manufacturing sector, it’s critical that deadlines are met and deliveries are made on time. With such businesses, the supply chain has to be effectively integrated to ensure smooth and timely delivery making uninterrupted power supply a vital element. Power trip for few minutes could bring production at halt for hours as can impact the manufacturing process from start to end.
 
Where do you wish to see the Industrial manufacturing sector of India by 2020?
Indian manufacturing sector is reaching new heights in terms of delivery, quality and cost. We see Indian manufacturing as a global destination for sectors like automobiles, electronics, IT hardware, textiles, and others. Growing at the rate of 4 per cent, the manufacturing industry in India stands at USD 340 billion (approx) and contributes significantly to India’s GDP – almost 26 per cent. It has all the qualities which enhance economic development and increase productivity, and is prepared to face competition from the global markets.
 
How did Emerson Network Power (India) performed during the last fiscal?
This fiscal witnessed the Indian economy bouncing back from the glitches. This also had an adverse affect on the fast growing Indian datacenter and enterprise cooling solutions market that had a flat year as opposed to double-digit growth in the previous fiscal.
 
What is your target for the current financial year?
Our primary focus for 2010 is ‘energy efficient solutions for next-generation infrastructure needs’. We are happy to be leaders in the space, and will strive to maintain our position by giving IT managers increased control of their power infrastructure. Towards this end, Emerson will continue to manufacture products based on our path-breaking Adaptive Architecture technology – a model that allows IT managers the additional advantages of scalability, adaptability and lowest total cost of ownership (TCO). It will be our endeavor to remain leaders in enabling business critical continuity through an in-depth understanding of customer needs and implementation of cutting-edge technology
 
Any expansion plan in pipeline?
As a customer-focused company, Emerson employs a verticalized approach towards business, which also enables us to offer expansive services to our customers. Hence, we expand as the market grows to accommodate their power and infrastructure needs.