'India Inc. can outsmart Chinese goods'

Neemra, April 13: With manufacturing at the core of Prime Minister rendra Modi’s “Make in India” campaign and labour costs in Chi eating into margins, India’s electrical goods manufacturers see little threat today from cheap imports, says Havells India chief Anil Rai Gupta. “The competition will be there. But the threat of unhealthy competition is over. We offer a much higher quality, ‘Made in India’ products at competitive costs,” Gupta said, launching his group’s power-saver range of “Lumeno” LED lights and “ES-40” fans in this Rajasthan town, some 120 km from the tiol capital, over the weekend.

The chairman and maging director of the Rs.8,000-crore group, which counts Sylvania, Standard and Crabtree in its stable of brands, said at the facility in this Rajasthan town that the threat of unhealthy completion from Chinese electrical goods was no longer relevant. Manufactured at its Hardwar plant in Uttarakhand, Havells — which has entered its 40th year of operations — also showcased the ES-40, claimed to be India’s first 40-watt fan, costing less that Rs. 2,000. “It can cut household electricity bill by as much as 17 percent.”

Conventiol fans consume around 75-80 watts and account for around 35 percent of a household’s electricity consumption in India. Replacing one conventiol fan with ES-40 can save a consumer, who runs a fan for 16 hours a day, up to Rs.1,020 a year.

The company also introduced at the event a new range of miniature circuit breakers, residual current circuit breakers and electrical safety devices, under “Euro-II” series for Indian market and said these were entirely “Made in India”. “The faith in Indian manufacturers is growing with maturity of consumers. They are no longer looking for low-quality, cheap products. They are buying products that give them higher returns — both in terms of longevity and energy savings,” Gupta told IANS. “This explains the increasing popularity of our products even in Tier-III cities and rural areas,” he said. “Innovations at three levels - branding, distribution and manufacturing technology — have helped tide over the challenge posed by cheaper altertives in the market.” (IANS)