JOIN US Zurich-based power and automation equipment maker ABB India has made it clear that its new electrification business division will play a pivotal role in the growth strategy of the company, as globally, India is in a sweet spot.
“India is our primary focus, as the company is witnessing a slump amid tumbling commodities prices in emerging economies such as Brazil, China and Russia. We find India in a sweet spot only,” Head of Electrification Products — ABB India, Raimondo Salandra said.
But, he said the company’s growth is affected by customers credit crunch and taxation, which is cumbersome in India.
“ABB is optimistic about growth as the division witnessed an 8-10 per cent growth in revenues in India. We are on a learning curve and solidifying our distribution networks,” he said.
Salandra said the company is focused on the ‘Make in India’ game plan of the government. “We are already manufacturing more than 70 per cent of our product portfolio locally, and are well connected to the ‘Make in India’ game plan. Backed by our deeper engineering power, the company is serving markets outside India also,” he said.
Besides continuing to invest in the development of a market-driven product portfolio, the company is focusing on infrastructure projects like smart cities, metros and IT parks, among others.
On the digitisation journey, he said, “We are looking at where to go and which solution to adopt. Various pilot projects are going on and the customer will have to take a call on this,” he said. When asked about the company’s expectation to bring the next level of disruption in the low voltage segment, he said that the technology is mature and ABB’s R&D wing is looking at these opportunities.”
ABB recently launched its home automation solution free@home. “It is a very simple plug and play solution which is intuitive and flexible for adaption by the end user. We are also coming up with wireless solutions to help customers,” he said. ABB India, which has been in the country for 60 years, employs more than 10,000 workers at 39 factories across 12 locations.