India pushes locally-made smart meter and EV tech

As India pushes locally-developed technologies, in line with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India – Make for the World’ initiative, new smart meter and EV technologies have been adopted by private firms in the country.

The Centre of Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) – an R&D Institute operating under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology – transferred the smart metering and Electric Vehicle (EV) tech to private firms.

Developed under the ‘National Mission on Power Electronics Technology (NaMPET)’ programme, each technology was developed in the hopes of driving adoption of Indian-manufactured technologies within the country.

Transferred to Pragati Electrocom Private Limited, the smart metering tech is based on Indian standards, suitable for Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and is compatible with smart grid communication technologies and supports Distributed Generation (DG).

And in terms of EVs, an AC Charger –  as per Bharat EV AC Charger (BEVC-AC001) specifications and AIS-138 standards – was developed and transferred to two firms, Electronic System and Vellore Electronics and Systems Private Limited.

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During a transference ceremony, Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma – secretary electronics and IT (MeitY), government of India – related the tech developments to Narendra’s campaign, which is hoped to boost Indian entrepreneurship across the country’s sectors.

Sharma stated, according to a government-issued press release, “India has moved from [an] importing nation to exporting nation…There is a huge market for the new and innovative devices and the advantage of this technology is efficiency, which will be a win-win situation for the developer…the industry and ultimately India.”

Modi’s Make in India is based on four pillars:

1. New Processes, aiming to de-license and de-regulate industry
2. New Infrastructure, aiming to develop industrial corridors and smart cities, strengthen existing infrastructure, support innovation and research and identify and develop industry skills for industry across the workforce
3. New Sectors: ‘Make in India’ identified 25 sectors in manufacturing, infrastructure and service activities and foreign direct investmetnt has been opened up
4. New Mindset, aiming to change how Government interacts with industry; Government will partner industry in economic development and will be a facilitator, rather than a regulator.

Sharma witnessed the transfer of the technologies to the private firms, which was attended by the additional secretary, MeitY, Shri Bhuvanesh Kumar, group coordinator, MeitY, Smt. Sunita Verma, officials from C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram and other dignitaries.