Dr V Sumantran, Chairman, Celeris Technologies speaks on what Tamil Nadu should focus to go to the next league at the Turbocharged Tamil Nadu seminar organised by Industrial Economist.
One domain that will become an important industry for the future will be automobile. This is the infliction point for the global auto industry as they are pivoting towards electric mobility. Sweden, an highly industrialised state, which 20 years ago was worried then of the future of how they will sustain their prosperity. Projects across the world like the Boston Corridor, Bay Area, have one common set of building blocks. It starts with good spectrum of educational institutions. Dr Narayanan mentioned about not just an educational system but also the importance of social environment that attracts young people. These are a big contributor to an economy. To be able to scale jobs, we need a trained labour force along with adequate infrastructure to operate with efficiency. Finally, it should be an environment conducive to attract capital.
In all these measures, Tamil Nadu excels. This is a state that has done reasonable well, particularly among its peer group. Being happy just about this will be like limiting us to seeing the glass that is half full. Of course this is so easy to do. The more challenging and interesting part should be looking at the glass that is half empty and see what more should we do. I think while I encourage that we fare well, even by comparing ourselves among our peer states, we have to look over our shoulders and look at other states catching up. It should be less about other states catching up, and more about where should we take our state and country over in the next couple of decades.
Building and EV ecosystem
The Electric Vehicles (EV) business can develop only if there is an ecosystem. The full cycle of this industry starts with an ability to produce core items. Cells for an electric vehicle industry is like memory and processor chips to electronics. Today, sadly almost 99 per cent of almost all vehicles sold in India have cells imported from China. We need to address this deficiency. Making cells is not a small scale industry. It requires significant commitment of capital. Fortunately TN has candidate companies that are interested in making cells in India. This ensures that the most fundamental building block of electric vehicles, battery cells, can be made in India.
The ecosystem depends on a whole range of other components also. TN is referred to as Detroit of East and it recognises the state’s very large manufacturing footprint of automotive components. This will be a valuable aspect to address the needs of the EV industry. Apart from the stalwarts, we have new players like Foxconn coming up into electronic manufacturing. This is mirroring what is happening globally where high volume manufacturing is beginning to pivot to electric vehicles and we will see that happen in the state and boosting the state’s capability to support electrification of mobility with components.
Whenever you develop a new industry, at the end of the day, if your don’t control the apex, platform development capability, we become nothing more than a a supplier state. Many states are satisfied with this. But when you start to control apex platforms, you not only determine the course of the economic trajectory but also, elevate the levels of skills necessary for integration. This is why it is important we house the manufacturers of EV and by this measure as well TN is already home to largest two-wheeler plant Ola and also Ather. Ampere is another important two wheeler player, putting up a million scooter plant in Ranipet. Similarly Ashok Leyland is also planning factory focusing on EV manufacture in TN.
Need for charging infrastructure
You cannot have an EV ecosystem without charging infrastructure. There is a lot of work ahead of us to roll out the kind of infrastructure that will be needed for the potential of this industry. Fortunately thanks to some very clever engineering supported by GOI, harnessing the instinct for frugal engineering, an open source technology for EV charging at a cost of Rs 3500 has been created. Highly scalable, operable by smart phone and capable of doing analytics, this is an affordable Made in India solution.
We need the right grid. It will be futile to develop this industry with a grid that is predominantly based on fossil fuels. The progress in terms of the basket of energy sources pivoting towards renewable is encouraging. The targets for India for fraction of energy that should come from renewables by 2030 is already at 40 – 45 per cent. As this industry matures, we will have in parallel, growth in renewable power.
There is a lot going on in this industry in TN. The glass is still half empty and there is lot to do. We can aspire to become the next generation Detroit of the east if we are able to harness this and not only cater to the evolving market in India but it should be our aspiration to cater to significantly to the emerging markets across the globe . That is the goal we need to focus upon. That half empty game is where we should go after. A lot of the building blocks are ready, all that is needed now is our spirit, conviction and effort to achieve that goal.
Watch the entire video of Dr V Sumantran speak at the session here.
