India plans to reduce dependence on China in making power banks

New Delhi: The power bank that charges up your mobile phone in a jiffy may be manufactured or assembled in India, but it is invariably designed in China. India now plans to reduce this dependence on China in the growing market of power banks and open a first-such design hub here for ‘power bank’ products, thereby reducing the significant foreign exchange outgo India incurs on this.This Centre of Excellence will open in Noida with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) collaborating with the industry to design power banks and other products based on lithiumion batteries, as per a proposal reviewed by ET.70049718 The government expects this to create more employment opportunities here, given that India’s lithium-ion battery-based product market is poised to grow at 26% annually and be worth $5 billion by 2024.As many as 65 manufacturing units bring out the assembled product in India currently, but all such products are designed in China. Designing, a critical aspect, may be a first step towards long-term manufacturing project as the country develops self-reliance in power bank technology.The Centre of Excellence to be run by C-DAC will be provided with required infrastructure and R&D facilities andstakeholders such as industry associations and consortiums will be brought on board to provide engineering skills and technology solutions.The industry partner is expected to help the Centre get international exposure to the core scientific team deputed for the project so that the required technology can be developed and testing mechanisms can be obtained.The government intends to get a premier status for the Centre of Excellence through generation of IPR & patents, development of newer technologies and newer products, and its marketing and scale of operations.C-DAC and the industry partner will collaborate to prepare a proposal for seeking the required financial support from the government for setting up the Centre of Excellence, as per the proposal reviewed by ET.The idea is to enable the Centre to become financially stable and self-sustaining through a revenue generating model.This collaboration is expected initially for three years but could be extended to five years.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2FQ5wRs