India is plunging head-long into an energy crisis that may cripple the country's burgeoning economy if the government does not act fast. The new government after election due shortly in India will face a tough time due to serious power crises unless steps to resuscitate the electrical power generation industry are taken with renewed vigor. On this count, Nuclear Deal India had with the US, more importantly India getting NSG Waiver at Vienna after long deliberations and oppositions from certain countries is a welcome sign as it has opened gates for Nuclear Power Plants, 27 of them stated to be coming up by 2020. This augers well for the Indian UPS Industry as Power Quality & Continuity will be the most sought after thing in years to come. So not withholding the resent economic meltdown, the ray of hope the Power Electronic Industry in the country remains unperturbed. 

Softdisk stands firmly by its forecast that Indian Power Electronic Industry will be touching the INR 5000 Crore mark by march, 2010.

One of the few political issues on which all parties contesting the upcoming elections could agree would be the need the need to encourage investment, especially in infrastructure. And with good reason. 

India is plunging head-long towards an energy crisis that will cripple the country's burgeoning economy if government does not act fast. As a fallout of the global economic crisis, the Indian UPS (uninterruptible power supply) segment has revised its estimates to expect a 20 percent growth rate in the coming year 2008-09, a drop of nearly 7% from 2007-08. 

So as 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 Eectronic 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. 

To add to wows, there is further shortage of fuel. I was in Bangalore, on the day the serial blasts occurred, with few industry friends. When I was told that they had to keep an additional weekday as Off Day, even the gensets were out of diesel as it was being rationed. Hi-Tech cities of Mumbai & Chennai have been facing severe power cuts. 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 16 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. What we are seeing now is a shift towards
alternative energy sources say SOLAR, WIND etc. 

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. 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 trade the products from the companies from 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. 

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 not 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. 

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. Softdisk has always been trying its level best to educate the end-users. We have always maintained that it is for the manufacturers who have to identify the users’ need and provide with cost effective, long term solutions to address them. 

No wonders, our readers (the end-users) have positioned us as Power Quality Consultants. Our mission is to forge partnerships between Power Protection Equipment manufacturers and end users. 

This year Softdisk approached nearly 740 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. This year in addition to online voting Softdisk sent over 12000 direct mailers. The result of the survey are based on 7926 responses received to our elaborate questionnaire. The questionnaire in poll format was made available at www.sdawards.in

Not ending here, our executives visited over 250 installations across various locations through out India, and also over 500 installations were touched thru tele-calling.

TOTAL INDUSTRY REVENUE

Over all industry revenue was estimated at 3474 crores INR, There is huge amount of secondary sales involved in this. Since the industry is scattered with over 400 unorganized players it is difficult to pin point the actual sales to end-users. However it is estimated that the UPSs worth 3054 crores INR was shipped to end users during the fiscal 2007-08.

GROWTH in 2007-2008 over previous year.

• Revenue wise : Industry grew by 27%. A growth of nearly 8.0% over previous years growth.

• Volume wise : Industry grew by 44% over previous year. This is a clear indicator of shrinking margins.

• Revenue from the unorganized sector accounts for over 400 crores. Thanks mainly to scores of manufacturers mushrooming in B class towns & cities.

• Online UPS sales picks up. Online sales account for nearly 84%. Contributing a significant increase in revenue. There is nearly 20% increase in sales of 10kVA plus UPSs.

• Offline & line interactive UPS register a growth of 14 % in volume terms but not have not been a significant contributor in increase in revenue terms, it increasingly becoming a low margin a high volume game.

• CVT nearly phased out, Only Elent survives, the other few exceptions being Bhurji and Data Guard and Starvision are the other few.

• Exports on rise as compared to previous year. Many leading once aim at exports. Of the Indian companies, Numeric emerges as Indian MNC and leading exporter.

• Number of foreign players on rise. Most of the top 20 players have a foreign hand either directly as a subsidiary / JV / Technical Tie-up or a distribution arrangement. Foreign brands net 64% of total UPS revenues.

• Rising prices of battery is a cause of concern for major UPS manufacturers.

• TPM, the new mantra for smaller companies. Even the biggies have taken service component as serious business opportunity. Service outsourcing to other companies is the new mantra for the market leaders. However those keeping service to themselves maintain an edge.