Mr. Shreegopal Kabra | Managing Director | RR Kabel Limited
While the businesses across the world are recovering from the COVID situation, the Budget 2021 has brought relief and challenges to many of the businesses in India. The electrical industry that is very essential has no major changes in the budget, but here Mr Shreegopal Kabra gives his review on it. Mr Kabra is the driving force behind RR Kabel Limited. The company is best known as manufacturers and exporters in control, power, instrumentation, silicon, auto, fire, security, and application based cables worldwide. Mr Kabra who is the MD of this company is a philanthropist and the man behind turning a small company into a global giant. He is associated with several social groups, educational institutes, sports bodies and NGOs. Mr Kabra is currently the Executive Council Member – SAARC Chamber of Commerce, Executive Council Member – IEEMA, Chairman (Winding Wires Category) – IEEMA, Executive Chairman – Winding Wires Manufacturers Association of India, President – Friends of Tribals Society (Mumbai), Chairman (ICA) Wire & Cable Division. We have with us this mastermind for reviewing the effects of budget and the post Covid situation of this industry. Mr Kabra also speaks about the CSR activities (Mission Rroshni) they do and the simple norms that we need to inculcate pertaining to the electrical planning and usage. Here is an excerpt of the interview with him.
IO – Focussing on the electrical industry sector, we feel that it is booming but the government is not focussing on it. Share your reviews after the post COVID effect and post budget probabilities pertaining to this industry and the country’s growth.
SK – The growth of the electrical industry is good already because of the bid increase. There are many bids added and a few reduced too. Talking about the growth of India, it is going to help us to be more compensative. The challenge that the industry faces is about the copper issue. 30-40% of the strenuous copper that is used worldwide for making utensils and other products is used in the electrical industry here. This is getting down the quality of the product, misleading the customer, and the power is also increasing. Apparently, we will have to suffer on the power generation.
IO – You are a part of IEEMA and the Wire and Cable Council of ICA. You form the regulations and other things too. Is there any impact on that?
SK – We have been voicing a lot of issues from the very beginning.We have been fighting that India should follow the ICA standards. While India is planning to be a global manufacturer without following the ICA standard it will be a challenge to maintain both quality and export. We need to increase the production so that we can use it here and export to other countries too. There is nothing for the exporters in terms of budget. From 1st January, they had removed MEIs because of the WPO pressure. Our export is close to 10%
of our GDP which says that we are lagging behind in it. It would have been great if the government accepted our request to provide a concession of 50% for income tax to the exporters. If we are looking out forward to export, there needs to be a certain concession.
IO – You are also connected with a lot of CSR activities. Tell us about the CSR activities during the pandemic that you did and your future plans of progress.
SK – The major CSR is for education. About our 85-95% donations go to it. We run a school, and during the pandemic, we asked the teachers of our school to educate the villages. We covered over 4 lakh small towns and almost converted them from educators to corona warriors.
IO – You are connected to over 2 lakh electricians across India. What measures do you take in making them progressive?
SK – Most of the electricians are not trained well and there is a deflect in the quality delivered. We train them with safety measures and all the necessary things to keep them delivering the best service.
IO – Majority of accidents apart from the road ones are fire accidents.What is your take on this?
SK – Like I already said, there is no proper training in India. Lot of education is required to become a good electrician and to maintain all the safety measures. It is not just the electricians, but it is the common men’s responsibility to focus on their own safety. The municipal committees need to make it mandatory for all the building owners to take approvals for the electrical and plumbing plan of the buildings. People die because of the some of the fire and in most cases not from the fire. We need to use products that are smoke-free. Everyone focuses on the product and not the power supply here. You can put a 5 star rating fan or air conditioner, but if you ignore the wire that makes it function, you are definitely not safe in the building.
IO – Wireless Transmission that has been tested in the US. Are there any such plans happening in India?
SK – It is in process, but there are a lot of changes that can take about 10 to 15 years to hit the market.
