Darkness at noon
In April 2013, Praful Patel, then Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, came out with a 'Vision 2022 for the Indian Electrical Equipment (EE) industry', targeting production worth $100 billion by 2022. The 10 year plan also estimated that the domestic demand for power generation equipment (boiler, turbine and generator, or BTG) would increase steadily to touch $25 30 billion by that time. The assumption was based on plans to add around 88.5 Gigawatt (GW) and 93 GW during the 12th and the 13th Five year Plans, respectively, mainly to coal fired power plants.
By FY2011/12, the Indian EE industry had grown close to Rs 1.20 lakh crore ($25 billion), and the share of the BTG sector was about 25 per cent or $6.5 billion. To tap this opportunity further, as many as five BTG joint ventures (JVs) were also set up in the last decade where Indian corporate houses, including Larsen & Toubro, Bharat Forge, JSW Energy, BGR Energy Systems and Thermax, had invested heavily. But the priorities of the government changed soon.
The emphasis on wind and solar power generation and the decision to discourage new coal fired thermal projects have landed the BTG sector in serious trouble. By 2016/17, the Indian electrical industry, including the BTG and the transmission and distribution (T&D) segments, dipped to Rs1,54,000 crore, according to data from
