The infrastructural developments introduced through policy changes are creating better business environment and will result into substantial demand in the industry, even as the private sector investments continue to remain subdued.

How do you assess the current market scenario?
Voltas is in multiple segments in the market that includes residential, light commercial and heavy commercial with wide product range. Even though market is not very favourable, we had maintained the growth momentum in the previous quarters primarily due to our approach of innovative and value engineering. And, if we talk about future growth, the government spent on infrastructure and the investments in the projects being materialized will continue to support the demand growth.

How do you see the growth of HVAC industry in India?
Regulations and investments in Infrastructure by the government have been driving growth in the industry. The infrastructural developments introduced through policy changes are creating better business environment and will result into substantial demand in the industry, even as the private sector investments continue to remain subdued.

We see the market growing at 10-15 per cent. While we do wish that investments by the private sector pick up, we see a lot of opportunities coming in from Government funded projects. Our order book for the year ended 2018-19 stood at approx. ` 3,000 crore. Majority of the order book is from the government funded projects in areas of,electromechanical (MEP) projects, water and wastewater management, and electrical projects. In fact, 40 per cent of our order book comes from electrical projects.

How Voltas is contributing in energy efficient and innovative solutions?
Voltas is primarily involved in application engineering, which basically means we bring in engineering solutions customised for various applications to meet the exact requirement of the customers. As a responsible corporate citizen, we are the first player in the industry to associate with Net Zero Energy Building.

One such project is the Indira Paryavaran Bhavwan in Delhi, an initiative by the Ministry of Environment. This is the first building in India that generates energy through high efficiency solar panels that are placed to achieve Net Zero criteria. There are other energy efficient systems introduced through various technologies like radiant cooling systems, besides the under floor cooling to ensure that the overall energy footprint of the buildings, that we are associated with, is substantially reduced.

Another way of reducing energy consumption is employing variable speed drives. When it comes to ensuring that the system design operates at its peak efficiency, we leverage the technologies of IoT. When you talk of IoT, the customer does not look at the equipment but an interconnected web of things that offer the desired output at minimum cost. The customers have been asking us for more features, not just limited to the chiller but monitoring the entire plant room, pumps, cooling tower, rather the entire building. Eventually, you look at what could be the lowest energy footprint per sq. ft of a building.

Talk about your latest offering in this space.
Voltas has been among the frontrunners in energy efficiency. We were among the first to company to offer star-rated products, even before the Government regulations came into place. Incidentally, we are leaders in the unitary cooling products space with approx. 24 per cent market share, one out of every four air-conditioners sold in the country bears the name of Voltas and Tata Group. As market leaders, we realise we have a responsibility to take the lead in technological advances.

The new innovative HVACR products and solutions that we have introduced are in line with the customer requirements for energy savings. For instance, inverter ductable air conditioners, energy recovery type VRF systems, oil free centrifugal chillers and co-generation, vapour absorption machines, among others. All the commercial air-conditioning products are manufactured at our new state-of-the art manufacturing plant at Wagodia, Gujarat, which is also houses our well-equipped testing facilities.

N Sridhar, Senior General Manager, Domestic Projects Group, Voltas Limited