By 2020, the Indian LED lighting market is forecast to grow to US$1.715 billion. Joanne Wu, assistant research manager for LEDinside, said the Indian government plans to make their country the export hub for lighting products going to East Asia.

At the same time, major international lighting vendors such as OSRAM and Toshiba have also set up production bases in India for supplying the global market. Driven by domestic and overseas demand, the Indian LED lighting market is expected to witness soaring growth in the near future.

Attracted by the prospect of strong profits, major international vendors, Philips Lighting and OSRAM have established R&D centers and production facilities in India. From there they will ship their products to markets worldwide. Domestic brands on the other hand generally import products from China and other countries. The exceptions are local vendors that are large enough to have in-house manufacturing capability, such as Havells and Surya.

“As they are more mature in terms of technology and product development, international brands together control a much larger share of India’s LED lighting market compared with domestic brands,” said Wu. “However, the government is committed to support the domestic lighting industry and has allocated local manufacturers 50% of the tendered volume of LED lighting products for various projects. Domestic vendors will thus be able to increase their market shares at home in the future.”

Despite the rapid growth and government support, India’s LED lighting market is currently at the early stage of its development and there are gaps in the domestic LED industry chain.

Wu noted that while there is a number of local companies engaging in the assembly, design and manufacturing of LED luminaires, LED chips and packages are wholly imported from abroad. Some Indian lighting vendors even buy from China finished products for local sales or semi-finished products for assembly.

This reliance on foreign products and components will start to diminish as the government encourages domestic manufacturing. However, the lack of domestic suppliers in the upstream and midstream of the LED industry chain will continue to be a challenge in the short term.