Currently, the Indian LED market is worth US$ 143 million, and is expected to touch US$ 1279 million by 2018
By Srabani Sen
Wednesday, July 10, 2013:With the recent central government effort to promote manufacturing of light emitting diode (LED) lighting products in India, the industry expects a significant growth in this market over the next five years. The most recent product category to be brought under the Preferential Market Access policy is LED. “Due to the central government and other state governments’ efforts to boost LED manufacturing in the country, we expect the India LED market to grow from the current US$ 143 million to US$ 1279 million by 2018,” V G Ramakrishnan, managing director, South Asia, Frost & Sullivan, told Electronics Bazaar. “The global penetration of Indian LED products will also grow from the current 4 per cent to 35 per cent in the next five years,” he added.
Key growth driver
DeitY has notified all central government ministries, departments (except defence) and the agencies under their control to procure 50 per cent of their requirements of LED products from domestic manufacturers. Also, 50 per cent of domestic value addition in terms of bill of materials (BOM) is mandatory for these LED products to qualify as domestically manufactured. The products in this category include those that utilise light produced by LEDs and cover applications like illumination, as well as optical displays, including LED TVs, back lighting, signalling, indication and transportation.
According to a Frost & Sullivan estimate, by 2018, demand for LED lighting products from central and state government departments will account for about 40 per cent, and that from streetlights, railways and industries will be 42 per cent, 62 per cent and 48 per cent, respectively. Commercial, automotive and residential verticals will see 39 per cent, 38 per cent and 82 per cent demand, respectively. These estimations were presented at the ‘Third Annual Executive Congress on LED Lighting—Towards a Brighter and Greener India,’ organised by Frost & Sullivan on July 9, 2013, in New Delhi.
“Another growth factor is the significant drop in the prices of LED lighting products, which have gone down by almost 25 per cent over the years,” said Ramakrishnan.
“Due to cost optimisation and technical advancements in LED chip and power electronics, the prices of luminaires like downlights, bulbs and streetlights have been brought down to more acceptable levels,” Ravi A V told Electronics Bazaar.
Arun Gupta predicts that the prices of LED lights are likely to fall even further in the coming two to three years as the Indian government plans to start chip manufacturing in the country soon. Some recent efforts by the Delhi government, like the reduction of VAT from 12.5 per cent to 5 per cent for LED products, have also added to the fall in prices.
LED: An effective solution to India’s lighting woes
As India grapples with challenges related to energy deficiency, electrification of remote rural regions and energy sustainability, the need to develop alternate technologies to combat these problems has become urgent. Lighting is an application that accounts for 20
per cent of the entire energy consumption in the country and LEDs have emerged as an effective solution for India’s lighting woes. “LEDs are poised to replace conventional general lighting service (GLS) lamps and high intensity discharge (HID) lamps in many key applications like street lighting, indoor and outdoor lighting, and niche applications like railways, apart from industrial and automotive sectors,” informed Ramakrishnan.
Despite a number of challenges that hinder LED penetration in the price-sensitive Indian market, leading to the reliance on cheap imports, LED
lighting has made strong inroads into the Indian lighting industry, propelled by government-backing for green technologies. Yet, much more needs to be done on standardisation, government support in spreading awareness, and affordability, before we can expect large scale adoptionpenetration of LED lighting.
Electronics Bazaar, South Asia’s No. 1 sourcing magazine
