Making ‘Make in India’ happen in traffic industry

There are great issues in India due to multiple agency involvement and complex requirement created with respect to requirement / procedure drafted in norms. The procedures drafted are so complex that it is very tough for companies to clear them without taking help from the concerned government agency office. We strongly feel that making single window service and relaxing the norms are more practical to fulfill from the user point of view. The friendly procedural and regulatory clearances also help comply with labour, environment, and taxation laws.

Besides, government owned testing labs are not supportive enough – there should be simulation tests and guidance provided to achieve the desired results. In addition, these labs are out of reach for the micro/small scale industry to get test done and get approval. And hence, they should not be profit making ventures.

I feel there should be some target given to the Indian standards agencies like IS / ISI or IRC to add new members and to encourage more products on development. Friendlier regulatory environment would encourage a company’s accountability and ensure better compliance towards the legislations. The project clearance mechanism should be so transparent that the company should go voluntarily to comply with the legislations feeling distinct benefit out of it. If simplified regulatory procedures and opportunity to supply to the international market is made available, the small and medium industries in the unorganized sectors would further enhance the quality of their products with stabilized prices. This will widen the scope of organized industrial network and encourage all industries (MSMEs) to contribute to the efforts of ‘Make in India’.

To compete with international products, the main criterion is comparable quality with the international standards. To enable this, one needs to expand the scope of the research & development of the company and look for innovative ideas & technology. In our company, we have re-organized our R& D with competent people to plan and implement new innovative products and outsourcing the R&D has further enhanced the completion time.

As an initiative, we have adopted the CDAC Technology (a Govt. of India endeavour) for manufacturing Wireless Traffic Controllers which is an advanced technology in traffic signaling that can be compared with international standards. We have added several advanced features in some of our products as per the emerging demands from the domestic and international market. To be at par with international quality, we have adapted the ‘CE certification’ as standard of quality for our products. Many of our products are CE certified which is a European Quality Standard. Further, we are planning for more innovative products for domestic and international market in the area of Traffic Signaling.

We are an ISO: 9001-2008 certified company. We have in-house sheet metal fabrication, assembly workstation, and hardware / firmware designing team. We follow very strict quality control measures and procedures throughout the production process. All the components are procured from highly reputed manufacturers with their quality certification and have our own designs for our products. Our in-house testing facilities provide us to have independent quality control. Further, all the products go through stage-bystage quality checks, right from the begining of manufacture to the finished products. Our expertise, experience and stringent quality control measures enable us to make products to the international standards.

We have introduced product advancement – VMS traffic Lights – which suits Indian requirement. If government extends any distinctive support to this programme, then the market will get benefit out of it.

Indian companies can play a big role in making the country take the next big leap in manufacturing. Having said that, the government has to chart out plans to give special sops and privileges like

• Simple and friendly registration and other compliance procedures for factories and companies.
• Simplified labour laws and regulations.
• Import duty reduction on only those raw material which are not produced / available in India.
• Common Tax structure (GST seems to be answer).
• Incentives and sops for complying with government regulations.
• Customs Duty concessions for importing dyes / tools.
• Giving clear instructions to all procurement agencies on drafting specs suitable for Indian requirement rather than just getting impressed on foreign technology of developed countries.
• Percentage relaxation in BID for Make in India products.
• Availability of Government test houses and concessional rates for testing.
• Better borrowing facilities for growth oriented needy companies.
• Availability of advanced technology for manufacturers in India.
• India must encourage hightech imports; research and development and plan concessional customs duty for technology oriented imports.