Ather Salim, Managing Director, Next Gen Equipments Pvt Ltd

Next Gen Equipments Pvt Ltd is committed to offer complete range of High Voltage Testing & Measuring equipment, providing applications in the lab as well as in the field for testing various electrical parameters of transformers, generators, motors, cables, bushings, switchgear, relay, oil and other electrical equipment and its accessories. The driving force of our equipment is its quality, user friendliness and reliability of customers on our products backed by excellent 24x7 service support provided by our small but dedicated team, informs Ather Salim, Managing Director, Next Gen Equipments Pvt Ltd in an interaction with Electrical India…

Kindly take us through the journey of Next Gen Equipment Pvt Ltd so far.

Next Gen was started in 2009 and within the short span of nine years, we have established ourselves as a major player in testing and measurement business, offering complete range of products in T & M business. With the growing business, we are now more focused on end-to-end solutions for our customers with more focus on quality and service. We have created the separate service vertical to have more focus service and better client experience. We have been adding different products complementing our product portfolio to provide one stop solution to our customers. We are now also ISO 9001-15 certified company.

What kind of transformations have you witnessed in Indian Electrical Testing market during last decade?

Indian Electrical Testing Industry has been dominated by foreign companies since long. In the last few years, Asian companies started supplying low cost products in the Indian market but within very short time people understood the benefits of European products in term of quality and reliability. Many Indian companies are also started manufacturing testing equipment in India but still they are also heavily dependent on foreign companies. European payers have entered the Indian power sector with technologically advanced products with superior quality. Testing & Measurement instruments have also witnessed major changes. T & M instruments are now user-friendly, portable and more accurate in the output and more reliable. These new generation Instruments can measure and store sophisticate data centrally with advance analytics which was earlier done manually. Now you can measure and analyze the trends centrally as well as from remote location. But the after sales service was the major issue to the foreign company in India. So, in order to bridge this gap, we have not only focused on expansion of our products in the market but also service.

What are the products offered by the company and in particular catering to Indian Energy market? What are the growth drivers for your products? What are your major customers in India?

We are supplying various equipment like Winding Resistance, Three Phase & Single Turns Ratio Meter, Micro Ohm Meters, Automatic Current Transformer Test Set CT – T1 from Raytech Switzerland, Standard Voltage & Current Transformers with 0.005% accuracy from EPRO Austria, AC, DC & AC/DC High Voltage Testers from ETL Pruftechnik Germany & Online Battery Health Analyser from MIDTRONICS USA. We have also added the solution for fully automatic transformer loss measurement system/ transformer test system for testing small & medium voltage transformer as well as online DGA & online PD monitoring system. The driving force of our equipment is its quality, user friendliness and reliability of customers on our products backed by excellent 24×7 service support provided by our small but dedicated team. All major transformer manufacturers in India like ABB, GE, CG, Siemens, T&R, TBEA, VOLTAMP, Schneider etc. as well as labs like CPRI, ERDA are our regular customers.

What technological innovations would you incorporate in your products for making them more superior and efficient?

As we are mainly representing European companies in India, we always focus on high quality, reliability and units with best accuracy and repeatability. At the same time, we are providing the feedback to our manufacturers on real time basis to develop the product best suited to requirement of customers. The selection of new products and companies in our portfolio is done with utmost care. Ease of use and highly accurate results are the hallmark of all our products. Most of the principal companies also provide very quick response to support our valued customers.

How would you differentiate Indian electrical test equipment markets from the global markets particularly European and American markets while offering your services and products? Do you face any competition in Indian markets?

There is always competition in the market. Still, we are able to increase our market share with technologically advanced product with better accuracy. Our focus is to provide 360 degree solution to customers. We have been very cautious with respect to the companies we represent and to add products which complement each other. We are adding new products in our portfolio on regular basis along with the focus on our existing products to increase our market share.

Over the past few years, we have developed RAYTECH and EPRO as a unique brand in the Indian power industry. Next Gen is known for its excellent support for its customers both in terms of sales & service. We are now ISO 9001 -9015 certified organization for our service standard.

What are your expansion plans in India with the government’s ‘Make in India’ program? What potential do you foresee for your company with the Indian Government’s focus on development of infrastructure like smart cities, roll out of power projects, etc.?

To develop world class product for power sector under ‘Make in India’ initiative, a manufacturer needs quality instrument from T&M industry to measure output and deviation. We are envisaging this initiative as a business opportunity for T&M business. Also the type of products we are dealing, we face a lot of competition from domestic companies. On the basis of quality, reliability and repeatability of test results, we have managed to create a niche market.

What is your outlook for 2018-19 fiscal for the segment?

Indian economy is expected to decelerate to 6.5% in 2018-19 from 7.1% in the previous year, mainly because of implementation of macro policies like Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetization.

Data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), power and hotels are the only two sectors that will grow at faster rates of 7.5% and 8.7% in FY 18. Hence, the outlook is still positive for the power sector and there is immense growth potential in this sector for next three to four years. Also as many new projects are lined up and requirement of ‘Make in India’ initiative requires a lot of new facilities getting developed. We see it as a great opportunity for the growth of this sector.

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