Gearing up for electric mobility

The country is home to around 400,000 registered electric vehicles (EVs), including e-rickshaws and e-carts. E-mobility is part of the EV circuit. This extends to shared mobility players, fleet operators and logistics companies. At face value, this is encouraging. But the EV industry requires sustainable measures.

Appropriately, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has reduced the GST on EVs and chargers from 12 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively to 5 per cent. Electric mobility as indicated in the Union Budget in July has been given a thrust. Some of its highlights include income tax rebate for buyers and lowering the import duty on certain parts of EVs. It means that EV innovators need to go that extra mile to urge owners of combustion engine vehicles to switch to clean fuels. Newer technologies with sleek vehicle specs need to be worked out for sustainable solutions. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been pushing for a zero-emission cost-effective mode of transport. The purpose is twofold. On the one hand, the idea is to position India as a significant manufacturing hub for electric vehicles at a global level. On the other, this initiative is expected to boost the Make in India vision. 

This is a time for developers to look for solutions right from the design and development stage. Design aesthetics should take into account time taken to scale up prototypes. Energy efficiency is essential to the interconnected systems in an EV.

The EV ecosystems that are being developed by auto firms should be affordable. This can happen by lowering manufacturing costs. It’s hoped that eventually EVs will replace internal combustion engine-driven vehicles. For mass adoption of EVs charging infrastructure needs to be everywhere. Power should be made available. Loans and subsidies should help build the EV ecosystem.

Backend operations, equipment manufacturers, marketing and dealership networks are some of the upcoming opportunities that need to be tapped. Perhaps when there’s more clarity on the EV policy, private equity and venture capitalists can be expected to come forward with investment plans.

Hyundai, Mahindra and Tata Motors are among the early companies that have come forward with EV offerings. Other car makers are preparing for new e-launches in the coming year. Individual startups have begun to conceptualise electric scooters and motorcycles. Leading players in the bus segment like Ashok Leyland have launched electric buses.

Another dimension is that the auto industry has had a bumpy ride this year, hit by economic slowdown, increasing fuel prices and automobile costs. Then consumers are treading cautiously. There’s an inherent fear that when a new petrol-diesel vehicle is brought home, there is a question whether it will be operational or off the roads after a decade. This dilemma is caused by the increasing emphasis on EVs. The sale of domestic passenger vehicle purchases has skid, resulting in a pile up of inventory.

Yet a couple of measures can turnaround this faltering growth. For instance, at the 37th GST Council Meeting in September, the Cess on Petrol Motor Vehicles has been reduced from 15 per cent to 1 per cent and Cess on Diesel Motor Vehicles has been lowered from 15 per cent to 3 per cent. This applies to vehicles with a capacity of 10-13 passengers. In India, ‘cess’ is a tax raised for a specific purpose.

There’s also a dire need for a policy to scrap the old vehicles. This will help revive a demand for new vehicles, thereby pumping up sales. The Indian automobile sector is the world’s fourth largest and comprises around 40 million contract and permanent employees.  

India has also set April 1, 2020 as the deadline to transit from BS IV to BS VI, a higher environmental standard of emission.

The silver lining is that the monsoon has been bountiful this year. This is expected to enhance the tractor sales, which in turn will improve the rural economy. Good monsoon can be understood in terms of a healthy crop. Seed sowing and non-farming applications are factors that have boosted the consumption of tractors. Strictly seen, tractors come under farm equipment. But then, the demand for these vehicles is expected to give some relief to the slump witnessed by the automobile makers.

Along with this, the auto trail has some interesting twists and turns. Vehicle manufacturers are trying their best to woo customers by raising the bar for the whole experience of purchasing vehicles. Interactive zones and aspects like 3D and experiential features are used to keep customers engaged.

Beat360 is a new brand experience store that Kia Motors India launched in the national capital territory of Delhi this year. As per an official press release, the new centre is a first for the Indian market and first outside Korea. Through curated zones visitors get a glimpse of Kia’s futuristic vision, besides interacting with the brand. The ‘mixed reality’ zone allows customers to wear head-mounted display units to explore the Kia model line-up in the virtual world through mixed reality technology and special effects.

MG Motor India has inaugurated its second flagship experience store in India. The retail experience packs in British cultural icons to reinforce the brand’s British legacy. Besides the English theme, the LED video wall showcases the brand’s history and future vision. There’s also an engineering wall that exhibits MG Hector’s components. Another takeaway is a 65-inch Line Vehicle Configurator for customers to customise their vehicles including the model, transmission type and fuel variant, along with a few accessories. 

Mobiles ring into India like never before

The Make in India vision which aims to generate domestic employment and create products for the globe has been lapped up by many industries. The mobile industry is the latest to join the fray. The mobile ecosystem comprises R&D, device architecture, local production, design and assembly, packaging and marketing, supply chain and ancillary firms. These have opened up new channels of employment led by skill enhancement and patent growth.

As home to 500 million smartphone users, India ranks among the world’s largest smarphone markets. Secondly, data consumption is growing and has encouraged people to upgrade their handsets from time to time. Dual-SIM phones are another booster.

Having whetted business opportunities by shipping mobiles into the country, global handset companies are setting up R&D hubs in India for exploring manufacturing opportunities. Many have partnered with electronics manufacturing units. Seen from a business viewpoint, these India R&D Centres have aligned their portfolio in line with the Government’s Make in India initiative. So along with India-centric innovations, many of these products are made to scale for the global market.

When OPPO decided to showcase its next Reno series it has chosen India as the hub for its global launch; after which the new series will be launched in various parts of the globe. OPPO Reno 10x Zoom and OPPO Reno pack in features like a sharper camera and better performance than the previous versions. The company’s R&D facility in Hyderabad is the largest one outside China.

The mobile ring tone has only got louder. OnePlus has expanded its base in India. As reported in the media, the company has begun its export journey, selling its Make in India smartphones to other parts of the globe including the US. The company has already invested ten billion rupees (£100m) in a research centre in Hyderabad.   

Vivo is expanding its manufacturing base in a phased manner. Xiaomi India has increased its manufacturing plants, with a seventh addition this year. Its production capacity has increased by 50 per cent.

International companies such as Apple and Samsung have been urged to make India as an export hub for their phones. Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has assured that investor-friendly policies and incentives will be rolled out in the coming months.

The outcome: mobile wallets will increase and app offerings will become more specific.

Agrarian reach

The Union Budget has promised support for agricultural investments. Private entrepreneurships will be encouraged to drive in value-adds to farmers produce. Allied activities like bamboo, timber from the hedges and solutions for generating renewable energy will get an entrepreneurial push.

Seen from a farmer’s perspective, food procurement is undergoing an overhaul. The Government of India (GoI) is planning to make Aadhaar biometric identification mandatory for farmers so that only the bona fide farmers can use the minimum support price (MSP). GoI has set an MSP to purchase directly from the farmer. This rate is to safeguard the farmer to get at least a minimum profit for the harvest, if the open market price is less than the cost incurred.

Individual companies have gone that extra mile to bring the agricultural community into the digital fold. Totagars’ Cooperative Sale Society (TSS) Ltd in Sirsi Karnataka has launched the digital wallet for its members. People who come under its ambit transact with areca-nut and pepper.

Besides cashless transactions, members will get an update on the daily market report of the agriculture produce sold through TSS. Identification documents like Aadhaar, voter ID and driving licence will be stored in the wallet. 

A growing breed of young engineering professionals and techies are giving up lucrative jobs to begin agricultural start-ups or sustainable farming. The reason is because of soaring vegetable prices or just a desire to be different. While doing so, some of them have managed to chart unexplored avenues. Technology is the enabler, as cloud, big data and artificial intelligence are used to monitor plant growth. Sensors help in making weather forecasts.

Like agriculture, fishing is another occupation crucial to rural India. The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) will give the Department of Fisheries the necessary linkages to establish a robust fisheries management framework.  This will address critical gaps in the value chain including infrastructure, modernisation, traceability, production, productivity, post-harvest management and quality control.

Connectivity is core to the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). The vision has brought many socio economic gains in the rural areas and technology has been the enabler. With a thrust on sustainable development, 30,000km of PMGSY roads have been built using green technology, waste plastic and cold mix technology, thereby reducing carbon footprint. Many villages and rural markets will come to the forefront through road connectivity. With a budgetary allocation of Rs 80,250 crore (£8m), 1,25,000km of road length will be upgraded over the next five years.

Gearing up for electric mobility

The country is home to around 400,000 registered electric vehicles (EVs), including e-rickshaws and e-carts. E-mobility is part of the EV circuit. This extends to shared mobility players, fleet operators and logistics companies. At face value, this is encouraging. But the EV industry requires sustainable measures.

Appropriately, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has reduced the GST on EVs and chargers from 12 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively to 5 per cent. Electric mobility as indicated in the Union Budget in July has been given a thrust. Some of its highlights include income tax rebate for buyers and lowering the import duty on certain parts of EVs. It means that EV innovators need to go that extra mile to urge owners of combustion engine vehicles to switch to clean fuels. Newer technologies with sleek vehicle specs need to be worked out for sustainable solutions. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been pushing for a zero-emission cost-effective mode of transport. The purpose is twofold. On the one hand, the idea is to position India as a significant manufacturing hub for electric vehicles at a global level. On the other, this initiative is expected to boost the Make in India vision. 

This is a time for developers to look for solutions right from the design and development stage. Design aesthetics should take into account time taken to scale up prototypes. Energy efficiency is essential to the interconnected systems in an EV.

The EV ecosystems that are being developed by auto firms should be affordable. This can happen by lowering manufacturing costs. It’s hoped that eventually EVs will replace internal combustion engine-driven vehicles. For mass adoption of EVs charging infrastructure needs to be everywhere. Power should be made available. Loans and subsidies should help build the EV ecosystem.

Backend operations, equipment manufacturers, marketing and dealership networks are some of the upcoming opportunities that need to be tapped. Perhaps when there’s more clarity on the EV policy, private equity and venture capitalists can be expected to come forward with investment plans.

Hyundai, Mahindra and Tata Motors are among the early companies that have come forward with EV offerings. Other car makers are preparing for new e-launches in the coming year. Individual startups have begun to conceptualise electric scooters and motorcycles. Leading players in the bus segment like Ashok Leyland have launched electric buses.

Another dimension is that the auto industry has had a bumpy ride this year, hit by economic slowdown, increasing fuel prices and automobile costs. Then consumers are treading cautiously. There’s an inherent fear that when a new petrol-diesel vehicle is brought home, there is a question whether it will be operational or off the roads after a decade. This dilemma is caused by the increasing emphasis on EVs. The sale of domestic passenger vehicle purchases has skid, resulting in a pile up of inventory.

Yet a couple of measures can turnaround this faltering growth. For instance, at the 37th GST Council Meeting in September, the Cess on Petrol Motor Vehicles has been reduced from 15 per cent to 1 per cent and Cess on Diesel Motor Vehicles has been lowered from 15 per cent to 3 per cent. This applies to vehicles with a capacity of 10-13 passengers. In India, ‘cess’ is a tax raised for a specific purpose.

There’s also a dire need for a policy to scrap the old vehicles. This will help revive a demand for new vehicles, thereby pumping up sales. The Indian automobile sector is the world’s fourth largest and comprises around 40 million contract and permanent employees.  

India has also set April 1, 2020 as the deadline to transit from BS IV to BS VI, a higher environmental standard of emission.

The silver lining is that the monsoon has been bountiful this year. This is expected to enhance the tractor sales, which in turn will improve the rural economy. Good monsoon can be understood in terms of a healthy crop. Seed sowing and non-farming applications are factors that have boosted the consumption of tractors. Strictly seen, tractors come under farm equipment. But then, the demand for these vehicles is expected to give some relief to the slump witnessed by the automobile makers.

Along with this, the auto trail has some interesting twists and turns. Vehicle manufacturers are trying their best to woo customers by raising the bar for the whole experience of purchasing vehicles. Interactive zones and aspects like 3D and experiential features are used to keep customers engaged.

Beat360 is a new brand experience store that Kia Motors India launched in the national capital territory of Delhi this year. As per an official press release, the new centre is a first for the Indian market and first outside Korea. Through curated zones visitors get a glimpse of Kia’s futuristic vision, besides interacting with the brand. The ‘mixed reality’ zone allows customers to wear head-mounted display units to explore the Kia model line-up in the virtual world through mixed reality technology and special effects.

MG Motor India has inaugurated its second flagship experience store in India. The retail experience packs in British cultural icons to reinforce the brand’s British legacy. Besides the English theme, the LED video wall showcases the brand’s history and future vision. There’s also an engineering wall that exhibits MG Hector’s components. Another takeaway is a 65-inch Line Vehicle Configurator for customers to customise their vehicles including the model, transmission type and fuel variant, along with a few accessories. 

Mobiles ring into India like never before

The Make in India vision which aims to generate domestic employment and create products for the globe has been lapped up by many industries. The mobile industry is the latest to join the fray. The mobile ecosystem comprises R&D, device architecture, local production, design and assembly, packaging and marketing, supply chain and ancillary firms. These have opened up new channels of employment led by skill enhancement and patent growth.

As home to 500 million smartphone users, India ranks among the world’s largest smarphone markets. Secondly, data consumption is growing and has encouraged people to upgrade their handsets from time to time. Dual-SIM phones are another booster.

Having whetted business opportunities by shipping mobiles into the country, global handset companies are setting up R&D hubs in India for exploring manufacturing opportunities. Many have partnered with electronics manufacturing units. Seen from a business viewpoint, these India R&D Centres have aligned their portfolio in line with the Government’s Make in India initiative. So along with India-centric innovations, many of these products are made to scale for the global market.

When OPPO decided to showcase its next Reno series it has chosen India as the hub for its global launch; after which the new series will be launched in various parts of the globe. OPPO Reno 10x Zoom and OPPO Reno pack in features like a sharper camera and better performance than the previous versions. The company’s R&D facility in Hyderabad is the largest one outside China.

The mobile ring tone has only got louder. OnePlus has expanded its base in India. As reported in the media, the company has begun its export journey, selling its Make in India smartphones to other parts of the globe including the US. The company has already invested ten billion rupees (£100m) in a research centre in Hyderabad.   

Vivo is expanding its manufacturing base in a phased manner. Xiaomi India has increased its manufacturing plants, with a seventh addition this year. Its production capacity has increased by 50 per cent.

International companies such as Apple and Samsung have been urged to make India as an export hub for their phones. Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has assured that investor-friendly policies and incentives will be rolled out in the coming months.

The outcome: mobile wallets will increase and app offerings will become more specific.

Agrarian reach

The Union Budget has promised support for agricultural investments. Private entrepreneurships will be encouraged to drive in value-adds to farmers produce. Allied activities like bamboo, timber from the hedges and solutions for generating renewable energy will get an entrepreneurial push.

Seen from a farmer’s perspective, food procurement is undergoing an overhaul. The Government of India (GoI) is planning to make Aadhaar biometric identification mandatory for farmers so that only the bona fide farmers can use the minimum support price (MSP). GoI has set an MSP to purchase directly from the farmer. This rate is to safeguard the farmer to get at least a minimum profit for the harvest, if the open market price is less than the cost incurred.

Individual companies have gone that extra mile to bring the agricultural community into the digital fold. Totagars’ Cooperative Sale Society (TSS) Ltd in Sirsi Karnataka has launched the digital wallet for its members. People who come under its ambit transact with areca-nut and pepper.

Besides cashless transactions, members will get an update on the daily market report of the agriculture produce sold through TSS. Identification documents like Aadhaar, voter ID and driving licence will be stored in the wallet. 

A growing breed of young engineering professionals and techies are giving up lucrative jobs to begin agricultural start-ups or sustainable farming. The reason is because of soaring vegetable prices or just a desire to be different. While doing so, some of them have managed to chart unexplored avenues. Technology is the enabler, as cloud, big data and artificial intelligence are used to monitor plant growth. Sensors help in making weather forecasts.

Like agriculture, fishing is another occupation crucial to rural India. The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) will give the Department of Fisheries the necessary linkages to establish a robust fisheries management framework.  This will address critical gaps in the value chain including infrastructure, modernisation, traceability, production, productivity, post-harvest management and quality control.

Connectivity is core to the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). The vision has brought many socio economic gains in the rural areas and technology has been the enabler. With a thrust on sustainable development, 30,000km of PMGSY roads have been built using green technology, waste plastic and cold mix technology, thereby reducing carbon footprint. Many villages and rural markets will come to the forefront through road connectivity. With a budgetary allocation of Rs 80,250 crore (£8m), 1,25,000km of road length will be upgraded over the next five years.