India’s first led bulb manufacturing cluster, which will be of international standard level is to be set up in Patna.
Introduction
It was Ranjit Kumar Jaisawal, President, Federation of All India Small Scale Lamps & Components Manufacturers’ Association (FASLCOMA), who kept himself busy for years highlighting and drawing attention of the concerned authorities of the center & the state towards the difficulties and the interests of the workers of the bulb industry of Patna City.
His tireless efforts of many years were covered several times especially on the direction and condition of the bulb industry by Bihar’s leading news papers, Akashvani, Doordarshan, and other TV channels. The stories were prominently highlighted through these mediums, which strongly influenced both the government and the officials.
Finally the time arrived and both the Centre & State Governments gave the nod to set up an LED Bulb Manufacturing Cluster in Patna City, Bihar. When contacted by LED World over phone, Jaisawal shared following details on the development in this regard so far. The edited excerpts are here:
A Brief History of Bulb Manufacturing in India
The first bulb manufacturing unit in the country was set up by the Mysore Lamp in the government sector in the 1940s. After that, Bangal Lamp was established in the public sector in Kolkata. Later in Patna City in the Private Sector in the year 1945, the Rohatgi Zamindar family used to name Pradeep Lamp Works for which the machine was imported from Japan. From 1945 till the decade of 1970, M/s Pradeep Lamp Works was known as the country’s leading bulb production unit.
M/s Pradeep Lamp Works later built machines using indigenous technology and started manufacturing more than 350 bulbs right from 5W up to 10000W, Defense Tanks, Transports, Aero Planes, Ships, Tube lights, Sodium Vapour Lamps, Flood Lights, etc. – all under one roof. M/s Pradeep Lamp Works had established its own branch in Kolkata, Pune and Delhi.
In 1957, Devdatt Jaisawal, Chief Technician at M/s Pradeep Lamps Works organised a group of technicians and developed a bulb-making machine. In 1959, he established a bulb factory in the name of M/s Jupiter Electricals, while for manufacturing the bulb making machine, he established a company in the name of Shyama Engineering.
Owing to these manufacturing units & workers, there developed a small scale industry which first spread across the Patna City and then across the nation. You can find the workers of Patna across the entire country even now.
Number of bulb manufacturing units
During 1990s, more than 200 bulb making units were there in the form of a cluster in around 5 km radius of Patna City. These units were busy manufacturing almost all types of bulbs. Also, there were quite a few bulb components manufacturing units which used to manufacture components like glass-shells, filaments, caps, etc. From here, bulbs of international standards were exported to various countries.
In the name of Bihar Bulb Manufacturers’ Association, there exists 49-year-old association of Bulb Entrepreneurs, which is going to celebrate its golden jubilee next year. At present, 70-80 micro and small units in Patna City’s domestic (GLS) bulb manufacturing cluster are connected to bulb production. There was a daily production of 4 lakh bulbs, but the production of GLS bulbs decreased from 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh due to the arrival of LED bulbs.
What is cluster?
There are different cluster development schemes of both the Center and the State, under which a special purpose vehicle has been made for setting up of a common facilitation centre for the technical development of a group of 50 industries of same type and same nature. Such cluster is spread over an area covering 5km radius.
Keeping in view the interest of the entrepreneurs and industry workers for the technological development of the bulb industry cluster, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (M/o MSME), Government of India, Pataliputra Patna and Industry Director, Industries Department of Bihar, fulfilling all legal works of cluster construction, a Special Purpose Vehicle in the name of Lighting Manufacturing Development Society (LMDS) has been registered for the establishment.
Tireless Efforts to Make It Possible
In this regard, we met quite a few centre & state government officials including Central IT Minister Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Central MSME Minister Shri Giriraj Singh; Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar, Central Associate Secretary IT Ministry Dr. Ajay Kumar (IAS), and updated them about the problems of the bulb entrepreneurs of Patna City and gave them the memorandum. Following which MSME Patna, Government of India in association with the Industries Department of Bihar State Government decided to surface the Common Facilitation Center while fulfilling all the statutory functions of the Cluster Development Plan.
Shri S. Siddharth (IAS), Principal Secretary, Industries Department – Bihar Government, who himself is an IT expert and had been the MD of Government’s Bulb Manufacturing unit for some time, is taking special interest and monitoring the development of this electronic cluster.
What will happen in LED Bulb Cluster Manufacturing Facility?
Special Purpose Vehicle for setting up of LED bulb cluster is registered in the name of Lighting Manufacturing Development Society. Common Facility Center will also facilitate developing SMD to produce standard-level Star-marked LED bulb, which will be made available to the members of the bulb cluster to enable them manufacture the LED bulbs and sell them in the market.
In the Common Facility Centre where SMD kit will be manufactured in Patna City, tools & equipment will be installed for testing of LED bulbs on various parameters right from life to illumination to wattage to voltage to radiation and to certification of all the components that would go in making of the bulb.
Funds for Cluster Development
Under the cluster development plan, the fund is already there with Department of Industries of Bihar Government (Rs. 10 crore); MSME, Government of India (Rs. 15 Crore), and with the Ministry of Electronics – all for cluster development scheme.
In a recent meeting of Indian Bank’s Regional Manager, Sandeep Kumar Gupta with Ranjeet Kumar Jaiswal, President, FASLCOMA and Lighting Manufacturing Development Society, it was decided that Indian Bank will provide loans at a cheaper interest rates to Cluster member entrepreneurs. And the account of lighting manufacturing development society (LMDS) will be opened in the corporate branch of Indian Bank.
Formation of High Level Committee
For LED Bulb electronic cluster, a committee has been set up in which – Director Industries Government of Bihar, Director MSME Government of India, Patna; Director NSIC, MSME, Government of India, Patna; CIPET Central Institute of Plastics & Engineering Technology Ministry of Petroleum, Government of India, Hajipur; DIC Patna& President Lighting Manufacturing Development Society Patna City are enlisted.
All the above associations are the highest and the best in the field of their respective works in the country. In the field of electronic, the LED bulb cluster of Patna City will be the first and the largest electronic cluster equipped with the international standard level technology.
Where would the SMD kit Machine be imported from?
SMD Kit machines will be imported from Japan for which we have asked the quotations and technical information on the same from the technology giants like Yamaha, Fuji, Panasonic, Juki, Mectronics, etc. In return, we have received the blue-print, after detailed study of which, the machines will be selected and order will be placed.
Designing SMD Kit
The design of the kit will be completely indigenous and will be developed by National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), the process of which both these organisations have already initiated. Once the design is ready, NIELIT will provide us the list of components that would go in the making of the kit. NIELIT will also offer basic electronics training to all the members of the cluster, besides providing industrial visits to those entrepreneurs. All the expenses will be borne by the Department of Industry, Government of Bihar.
NIELIT (National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology)
National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT), (erstwhile DOEACC Society), an Autonomous Scientific Society under the administrative control of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MoE&IT), Government of India, was set up to carry out Human Resource Development and related activities in the area of Information, Electronics & Communications Technology (IECT).
NIELIT is engaged both in Formal & Non-Formal Education in the area of IECT besides development of industry oriented quality education and training programmes in the state-of-the-art areas. NIELIT has endeavoured to establish standards to be the country’s premier institution for Examination and Certification in the field of IECT. It is also one of the National Examination Body, which accredits institutes/organizations for conducting courses in IT in the non-formal sector.
Plastic Dyes & Batteries for LED Bulbs
Central Institute of Plastics & Engineering Technology, Ministry of Petroleum, Government of India (CIPET) will prepare the plastic dyes and batteries for LED bulbs, for which CIPET has prepared some sample designs for approval.
Sourcing of the Components
National Small Industries Corporation Ltd. (NSIC), Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (M/o MSME) will provide the components, list of which will be provided by NIELIT to NSIC.
Managing Common Facility Centre
LMDS (Lighting Manufacturing Development Society) has taken a piece of land on lease for 10 years over which the common facility centre will be set up.
Why Patna?
The objective of the proposal is to establish a cluster in Patna City area of Bihar’s Patna District, wherein over 5000 workers are involved in traditional filament bulbs manufacturing. In the current scenario, due to high demand of the LED bulbs for the attributes like less energy consumption and long life, the traditional bulb industry is about to die putting the livelihood of the workers involved in this industry at a stake.
Through capacity building in the area of LED design and manufacturing we can not only provide a source of livelihood but also we can be able to develop a LED Cluster in this area. As of now, most of the LED manufacturing is done in the NCR and Gujarat. In the eastern region an unnecessary transportation cost is added up due to long distance between manufacturers and customers.
