Produce quality products or get no protection: Abdullah to solar firms

New Delhi: Facing stiff competition from western and Chinese manufacturers, the Indian solar industry has been warned by the government that the protection given to them in the solar mission may be reviewed if they do not come up with quality products.

Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), it is mandatory for the power producers to have a certain percentage of local content in the plants being set up by them.

“We have put local content in the JNNSM. Local content was basic need so that local industry could survive. But if local industry cannot produce a good product…they not meet the requirements that we need in India, this local content is going to go,” Union New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah said during inauguration of a solar power project in New Delhi.

Currently, the local content in the solar plants is 75 percent against the imported content “but next year the government may have to review it”, he said.

“When a man goes to the market, he wants the best product at good price. If you cannot reach it, we will not be able to protect you for long,” Abdullah said.

The minister asked the local manufacturers, “Why is it not possible for us to produce what we are procuring from China and the West?”

Noting that one of the aims of JNNSM was to encourage research, Abdullah said, “How long will you borrow things from the West? Why did you not consider producing some thing that the West should borrow from us?”

The minister asked the indigenous manufacturers to get on with their work in a fast manner.

“Nation is not going to wait. Unless you produce and do research here, we will not be able to protect you,” Abdullah said.

PTI