Let there be light

Niranjan Mudholkar , March 1st, 2009

The Indian lighting industry is becoming as concerned for the environment as it is about consumer awareness, good engineering and aesthetic designs. Manoj Verma, chairman of the Light India International 2009 Conference and VP, consumer products & international business, Crompton Greaves explains to Niranjan Mudholkar

The Light India International (LII) Conference organised by the Indian Society of Lighting Engineers (ISLE) has been a key event for the lighting industry  in India because of the conference focus on technical papers and fundamental research.

However, due to the emphasis on purely technical issues, it has not been very successful in attracting end-users like architects, interiors designers and developers.

 “We realised that it is critical to have the presence of end-users for such conferences and therefore this year we modified the format of the conference to make it more interesting for our customers,” said Manoj Verma, chairman of the Light India International 2009 Conference and vice president, consumer products & international business, Crompton Greaves.

Focus on practicality

Incidentally, this year’s conference was quite successful with more than 600 delegates including several from the end-user segment attending it. From the original three-day format, this year it was just a day-long event and was conducted at the same place as the venue for the ‘Lighting South Asia Expo 2009’.

So this was an added attraction for the delegates. “Importantly, we joined hands with the Institute of Indian Interior Designers (IIID) for this year’s conference. This year, the emphasis has been more on usage rather than technology, more on applications rather than products. It is equally important that while serving as business networking platforms, key trade events should also inform and educate the industry as well as the end-users,” Verma said.

The LII 2009 Conference held in Mumbai aimed at a high level of practical experience and information sharing.

“The focus of the sessions during the conference was on practical case studies and experience rather than on theory,” he said. For example, the conference included a case study of a large multi‐disciplinary project where L&T with its architects, consultants and project team made presentation on the challenges faced for the Delhi International Airport Project.

“The presentation covered various aspects of project design and implementation but with a focus on lighting,” Verma said.

Another session by Behr Champana of TVS International, which is one of the world’s largest architecture companies, discussed lighting from various perspectives including creating cityscapes, designing colonies and town planning.

Champana has been involved in multi-disciplinary architectural projects in several countries and is presently stationed in Dubai. His presentation talked about how innovation in lighting technologies is shaping our perception of the sustainable cities and architecture of tomorrow.

“Champana is truly a dreamer and during his presentation, he shared visual collages of his dreams with lights. He also focussed on the need to move away from light pollution,” Verma remarked.

Adopting the CDM programme

While discussing the highlights of the LII 2009 Conference, Verma also underlined his industry’s growing concern for carbon dioxide emission and global warming.

“As an industry we are aware in terms of the threats of carbon emission and climate change. The industry has already made forays into the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Programme. The basic product for this programme is the compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), an energy saving lamp that allows you to gain carbon credits,” Verma said.

According to Verma, there are companies working with state electricity boards on the CDM programme. Andra Pradesh is one state where a CDM project has been implemented. “However, the CDM programme has not picked up the way we had expected it to pick for the simple reason that the awareness and the knowledge about the execution of the CDM programme has not yet come in to the fullest in the Indian lighting industry,” Verma added.

It is likely that going ahead, more and more companies would show interest in such programmes due to the encouragement from non-profit organisations like the Clinton Foundation and investment bankers like Goldman Sachs.

“What an investment banker like Goldman Sachs does is that it signs up with a lamp manufacturer and a utility company, say for two million CFLs. The manufacturer delivers the two million CFLs free of charge to consumers. The investment banker pays the company and in return gets paid out of the instalments deducted from the bills paid by the consumer over a period of twelve months or so. The investment banker also earns revenues out of the carbon credits earned for the project,” said Verma explaining the model.

“It has started but in India there is still time for the programme to be understood first and then be implemented,” he added.

Dealing with mercury

Today, the biggest environmental concern from the lighting industry’s perspective is mercury as most light sources use mercury. One issue in this regards is of course the usage of mercury in the manufacturing process.

“The industry has taken efforts towards reducing the content of mercury in the lamps. As an industry, we are also stepping up technology and stepping up innovations to ensure that we are within the norms of the international fraternity. Some day the European norms will come to India,” Verma said.

The second issue is related with the safe disposal of hazardous waste. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive has included CFLs in this category. The Indian lighting industry is in talks with the Ministry of Environment to determine what should be the norms for safe disposal of hazardous waste in India.

“In Europe it is very easy as waste management of hazardous materials is becoming an industry there. So collecting fused CFLs and disposing them has become a business in Europe. Also, the user in Europe is more aware and disciplined than the Indian counterpart. The utility there too has a mechanism of collecting and disposing such materials. Europe is in fact moving towards a stage where the lighting industry will be collecting these lamps and giving them to the converters,” explained Verma.

In India, however, we have a long way to go. There is a lot of need to create awareness amongst end users. “Not many people in India are aware that it is not proper to break a tube light or a CFL in the open. Mercury is immediately released in the environment the moment it is broken and then no method of disposal can prevent the harm. We are working with the government to see how the government can implement a mechanism to collect the fused lamps or tubes as currently neither the consumers nor the rag pickers are aware of the hazard associated with these materials,” Verma added. 

The CFL market

The Indian lighting industry has now realised the importance of CFLs. Earlier, influx of Chinese products used to be a menace but not anymore. “That’s because anti-dumping duty has been imposed and if we get products from China then we get top quality products. So that’s not an issue anymore,” Verma said.

“Today, the CFL market is the largest growing segment in the lamp industry and is growing at the rate of 25-30% year-on-year. We estimate the market to be around 200 million+ in pieces,” explained Verma.

Verma’s company Crompton Greaves too has a small but noteworthy presence in this segment. It is still small in this segment because it entered this market late – about two years ago. “But we have registered a very fast growth – from 1.3 million pieces when we started to about selling 10 million this year. We have invested in the manufacturing set-up and we are increasing capacity,” he informed.

Crompton Greaves is likely to become a key player in the CFL segment because not only is the Group doing exceptionally well overall but also the lighting business will continue to be its core division. In terms of the market scenario, Philips is the market leader in the CFL segment by brand. However, Phoenix leads the market when it comes to manufacturing capacity.