By R. Natarajan, Mg. Editor & Publisher, MOTORINDIA
The International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) organized its fifth edition of the biennial event, the International Symposium on Lighting (iSoL-2017), at Hotel Hyatt Regency, Gurgaon during November 16-17. The conference witnessed a record number of exhibitors as well as delegates from across the globe.
Mr. I.V. Rao, Advisor to Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., the guest of honour on the occasion, shared his views on the growth of the Indian automotive sector in the last few years. As per the Automotive Mission Plan (2016-26), India will become one among the top three auto players in the world by 2026. Earlier, auto lamps were used only during night. However, they are now being used even during day time because of climatic changes. Also, automotive lamps have become an integral part of a vehicle body with aero dynamic technology, etc.
The Indian auto industry is constantly working on the development of products for safety and emission. Here, LED lamps, representing the latest technology in automotive lighting, offer a lot of benefits, including energy saving, flexibility for adoption, etc. All this new technology has not only raised the cost of lighting products but also brought about other technological challenges. Hence OEMs should find some solutions to overcome them.
Mr. Dinesh Tyagi, Director, ICAT, in his welcome address, said iSoL-2017 had emerged into a major event in support of the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Modi Government. For the Indian auto sector, safety and technology is very important. It was in 1920 that auto lighting was invented, and over the last 97 years it has witnessed a dramatic change with the introduction of various new technologies such as intelligent lighting, smart and styling, etc. Later on, the halogen and laser technology became a popular trend. Further, the intelligent device technology has also evolved as part of the change in trend. The new lighting technology eliminates road accidents too. In this regard, ICAT has made lot of improvement in its lab for lighting safety.
Referring to the world automotive lighting market, Mr. Tyagi said it has grown multifold over the years and is expected to further expand from $1.5 billion in 2013 to $30 billion by 2020, with a CAGR of 6.4%. Since 2011, China and India have contributed a lot to the overall growth of the automotive lighting market, followed by Europe.
Mr. Dinesh Tyagi welcomed all the delegates with a bouquet and also made excellent arrangements for the two-day seminar. A souvenir on iSoL-2017 was also released at the inaugural function.
Dr. Madhusudan Joshi, DGM, EMC, E&E, iCAT, in his concluding remarks, thanked all the delegates and sponsors for making iSoL-2017 a grand success.
The two day event witnessed excellent deliberations on the automotive lighting technology, safety and its future.