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00:00All right, a few days to go for the union budget, the big event that everyone is watching
00:12including industry. Today on our special segment budget wish list, we're speaking with Hitesh
00:18Doshi, the CMD of Wari Energies Limited. Now, this is one of India's largest PV modules
00:26manufacturer, has been in focus also because of an upcoming listing and we'll try and ask
00:31some questions about that as well. But for one, Mr. Doshi, very good morning. Great to
00:35speak with you on NDTV Profit. And let's start with what is top of mind, which is budget,
00:43the first budget for the third iteration of Modi government. So, Modi 3.0's first budget.
00:50And the focus on renewables has been huge through the first two terms continues to be
00:56so. What are you hoping to see from the budget, which could really make a difference?
01:00Thank you. Thank you for inviting and giving me this opportunity. As a manufacturer, definitely
01:09the first thing we look as how we expand more and more manufacturing in the country. And
01:16globally, all the countries are looking to India to provide alternative supply chain,
01:24or I would say the additional supply chain. Then where the market is concentrated to one country
01:30or the proxy countries for more than 99% of the supplies. So, this budget is a good opportunity
01:38to use to create and which government of India has already done today. We are seeing in a solar
01:46module, our capacity of ALMM capacity itself has gone above 50 megawatt. And slowly we are thinking
01:54that in the next two to three months, we'll see that it will cross even a 60 gigawatt. That's a
02:0260,000 megawatt. So, how this budget can support for more and more manufacturing end to end for
02:13all the ancillaries, for all the products which are required to make the solar panels, batteries,
02:20hydrogen equipment in India, and not only for the India, but to provide the second option globally.
02:28Right. So, let's get specific, Mr. Doshi. You're saying you want support from the government.
02:37What does that support look like for you? Does it look like increased budget allocations?
02:44Do you see it in the form of action against imports of key components that you need,
02:51including solar cells, etc.? Let's get into a bit of detail of what you would hope to see specifically.
02:58So, manufacturing, any manufacturing to grow, there are certain requirements to be competitive
03:07globally. That can be the support for the capital, that can be the support for the interest rate,
03:15for the starting. And we already have the schemes like PLI, how we make it
03:21more stronger to compete globally. We go for the power for the industries we are in. We need a
03:29huge power. Then the requirements are how we can get the low cost power, again, to be competitive.
03:37So, we are competing to the countries where they are a little bit ahead of the manufacturing
03:43dynasties. And government has taken a lot of actions like capital subsidies or the PLIs,
03:50and this needs to be increased a little higher. Or we go to the export. When we have to export,
03:59and again, a conflict to the countries where they have the larger export benefits.
04:03And at present, there are no benefits for the exporting from India. So, how do you make India
04:10more competitive to them with the export benefits? So, it's a series of the list.
04:16And this list is exactly what our competitive countries have done. And we have done a lot.
04:25We have done a lot. Now, what we have to do more
04:28to really compete with them and take a little bit larger global share.