A long way to go

June 26, 2014 6:09 am

The govt of India needs to push ahead relentlessly with large scale infrastructure projects that will change the face of the country
Today ElectroMech is one of the largest EOT cranes manufacturers in India. It offers solutions for various applications in manufacturing plants and infrastructure projects through a range of hoists and cranes. Being interested in India’s journey towards becoming global manufacturing hub, Tushar Mehendale expresses his views on the roadmap.
A lot of ground to coverIndia has quite a lot of ground to cover to become a truly global manufacturing hub. Productivity in the economy needs to increase to a large extent. Bottlenecks right from the basic education system to infrastructure need to be addressed on priority. Red tapism and instability in the government further add to the woes of the manufacturing sector.
The investment environment needs a lot more confidence inspiring measures. Ambiguity in taxation laws and application of retrospective taxes hurt the confidence of investors. This kind of uncertainty should not exist to create an environment that can sustain growth in the long term.
Get going factorsInfrastructure development is usually a positive indicator of the economic growth of a country. As a country undergoing rapid development, the construction and infrastructure sectors are witnessing an increase in activity. Several other complementary industries, such as steel and cement are growing as well.
The power sector is also expanding in India and hence there is demand for a variety of equipment from this sector.
India has emerged as a well recognised manufacturing hub for several heavy engineering companies. Core sector, automobile and ancillaries, power, infrastructure construction, shipyards, capital goods manufacturers, general engineering and fabrication industries also benefit directly or indirectly from this growth. Situation to overcomeThe Indian economy continued limping into the start of this year. As a result, the capacity utilisations at several factories were at record low levels, making no substantial generation of demand in cranes.
Furthermore, the scenario on the infrastructure projects front is also not promising as a lot of projects continued to be stuck in regulatory imbroglio. This gave rise to the shrinking size of market quite dramatically in previous year and made a direct implication on the business generation possibilities. This overall situation needs to be overcome.
To do list on priority for govtThe govt. needs to push ahead relentlessly with large scale infrastructure projects that will change the face of the country. Efficient and simple taxation systems like GST need to be implemented on top most priority. Incentives should be given in terms of easy land availability and clearances for projects above a certain size. This will boost foreign investment in the country which will help Indian industry emerge as major industrial force on the global stage.
ElectroMech’s path ElectroMech believes that the trend of increase in demand will become more pronounced in coming period and  the company is eagerly looking forward to it. To handle the growing needs it has a quality facility that has an annual manufacturing capacity of over 1500 cranes. The company has also implemented lean manufacturing systems within its process flow which enables it to reduce the turnaround time for order execution drastically, thus further increasing capacity within the same facility.
Tushar Mehendale, MD, ElectroMech Material, Handling Systems (I) Pvt. Ltd.