International Symposium on Lighting(iSoL) Inaugurated

The International Symposium on Lighting “iSoL-2011 (Illuminating Pathways)” being organised by International Centre for Automotive Technology(ICAT) was inaugurated by the Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises Shri S. Sundareshan here today. Following is the extract of his speech:

“Adequate availability of energy for lighting is one of the basic requirements of all civilized societies and for faster economic growth and development. To make growth truly inclusive, access to energy for lighting in rural areas and to the urban poor has to be ensured. Unfortunately, the energy demand of India’s rapidly growing economy and burgeoning population, has outstripped the supply and more disconcertingly, the demand supply gap has been widening over the years. This has to be addressed.

The Indian automotive industry has made rapid strides in recent years. With a turnover of about USD 73 billion, it has catapulted itself to being today the world’s largest manufacturer of tractors, second largest manufacturer of two wheelers and the sixth largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles. The Automobile Industry in India has traditionally enjoyed the advantage of cost competitiveness mainly on account of the low cost of skilled labour. This, however, cannot be the sole panacea for sustaining the competitive edge. As the competition increases from other low cost countries in Asia Pacific Region in particular, the automobile manufacturers in India will have to further improve quality and safety in tandem with the evolving global standards. In the context of night time safety of the vehicle and road users, automotive lighting assumes a very important role. As night time traffic is recognized to be more dangerous with more than double the daytime accident rate, it is obvious that all players in this field must cooperate to improve night time traffic safety. Automotive lighting thus holds a lot of promise, not only from the perspective of safety of the vehicle and road users but also for enhancing the aesthetic styling of brands.

The automotive lighting industry has a history of over a century. Technology has evolved from the first tungsten filament light source to Halogen based one and then to the cutting edge “intelligent Xenon” and LED headlamps which came into production towards the fag end of the last decade. It has been estimated that the worldwide lighting market will grow to approximately USD 159 billion in the year 2020, 10% of which will be from automotive lighting industry.

The lighting industry both general and automotive, the government as well as the end users have a collaborative role. We will have to gear up to the challenges and opportunities that are rapidly unfolding in this area. The speakers participating in this symposium, I am told, have vast expertise in the field. I am sure that the deliberations today and tomorrow along with the valuable insights to be provided by the experts present here, will prove to be very useful and will show us the way forward in the direction of putting in place an energy efficient lighting regime and enhancing safety of vehicle and road traffic.”