Just
a few weeks ago, there was a Western grid power break down, whole of
Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra, Gujarat were in state of black out, trains
have come to a stand still and what’s more even certain call centers
bore the brunt for few hours. Business transaction worth hundreds of
crores were affected. So we talk about infrastructure at par with the
developed world.
Power continuity & quality are main ingredients a
successful urbanized society. The growing need of e-commerce, the
evolution of data centres and the ever increasing number of servers have
all increased the need for having a well addressed Power electronic
Industry.
The theory of computer breakdowns being caused by
electrical line disturbances is fast loosing its importance as we observe
a paradigm shift from irregular power no power. The number of power grid
breakdowns reported over the last two years stand testimony to this fact.
Even the Silicon city of Bangalore and the Hi-Tech Mumbai & Chennai
remained without electricity during the floods caused by recent rains. The
answer to all this is simple, have a well addressed Power Electronic
Industry addressing the needs of the distraught computers and their users.
Thanks to all this UPS and inverters have grown in
vogue, these are no more subsidiary products sold with computers and
costly electronic equipments.
It is 15 years, since we have been surveying the Power
Electronic Industry. We have been an eye-witness to all the changes, from
SVS to CVT and then to UPS and now to what we can call a complete power
electronic solutions provider. We have seen the industry ups and downs.
The era when our surveys nearly touched the figures of over 1400
manufacturers to today where many even the semi organized to few of the
organized once have been forced to change their line of business. From
highly fragmented to some consolidation. However there are still around
850 players, the competition is stiffer, SOHO business are purely made out
of relationship or branding. This is where the mid range players have been
the most suffers.
And to this new era of where most of he manufacturers
have been prompted to outsource there production either in part or in full
to the companies from far east (China & Taiwan). And few have actually
pitched in with there own shops joining the party, thrown to them by the
Govt.’s Globalization philosophy and open economy. Definitely the
interest of local manufacturers is at risk and no wonders they have
switched to trading at least in lower kVA categories.
Softdisk has long been a campaigner of having a well
addressed Power Electronic Industry addressing the needs of the Power
Electronic Equipment manufacturers, constantly egging the Govt. to slash
excise, cut import duty on piece parts and it won’t be any exaggeration
to say that our efforts have yielded positive results. As a result of our
efforts UPS was recognized as IT peripheral, however this back fired as
those with money power, started trading in UPSs with imports from China
& Taiwan, especially upto 20 kVA systems.
This year it was clearly visible that the industry is
going through a phase of metamorphosis with biggies getting bigger and
those not having organized marketing strategies being marginalized.
Here we emphasize to our readers that service
capabilities and just the price must be criterion for selection of UPS
systems. The electronics, no matter imported or Indian, needs proper and
preventive maintenance. It is not purchase it, install it and forget it
sort of thing.
Currently UPS (Unin—terrupted Power Supply System) is
classified under Chapter 8504.4029 of Customs Tariff. Basic duty is
exempted vide Notfn No;25/2005 SL. No;4 if used for Computer/Telecom
Applications. Our fight is still on, We have approached the Union Commerce
& Industry Minister Mr. Kamalnath to press the industry demand to
bring the entire range of UPS systems imported to be exempted from duty,
this will help clear a lot of mess.
Be it govt. or the Corporate or the manufacturers
themselves, all have acknowledged our efforts and have started consulting
Softdisk for their decision making efforts.
This year Softdisk surveyed 710 companies from all
angles, turnover, growth, marketing network, quality certifications, sales
under various ratings, customer support and even contacted the customers
to have their view point. Awarding points to know how the companies are
fairing and also companies were ranked on the basis of Users’
Satisfaction Survey on various parameters. For the first time online
voting was carried out which yielded tremendous response. Helping us
increase our sample size to 6477 which came across all industry verticals
and not just the top few. Fresh SD Users’ Satisfaction Ratings have been
given according to the user’s perception of various installations we
visited, or had the views from.
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