SAEINDIA is organizing the 4th Edition of iTEC India 2021 in collaboration with IEEE IAS USA. The event has been growing in size and stature over the years and is eagerly awaited by all key stakeholders of the EV community. This physical event will be held on 16th to 18th December 2021 at Manesar, Gurugram, Haryana. This meet assumes great significance because Indian Automotive market will grow rapidly and is slated to become the 3rd largest in the world by 2030. The event is expected to be attended by delegates from over 16 countries.
Addressing the media virtually Mrs. Rashmi Urdhwareshe (Former Director, ARAI) and President, SAEINDIA, highlighted the importance and need for this international meet where experts from around the world will participate. Incidentally, SAEINDIA would also be commencing the Silver Jubilee celebrations this year, culminating in a Grand Finale event in November 2022. She added that SAEINDIA is well known in the engineering community as the ultimate destination for knowledge dissemination and skill enrichment for engineering professionals in India. This meet will enhance the skills of all participants.
Mr. C.V. Raman, CTO – MSIL and Patron of the event, said that with support from the Government of India and other policy makers, massive work has to be done in building the supporting infrastructure and ecosystem for faster adoption of electric vehicles. Some of the important priorities and policy interventions will be discussed during the 3-day conference, and experts from overseas will share their experiences to find pragmatic solutions to the challenges that lie ahead. He shared that India is a vast country and have varied mobility needs. To fulfill the needs of varied set of consumers in an affordable manner, we need to look at all energy options as outlined by Hon’ble PM in his Independence day speech – Natural Gas, Electric Mobility with Renewables, Biofuels and Green hydrogen. Further Hon’ble PM had talked about India becoming Net Zero by 20270 and had given 5 commitments at COP 26. Industry need to strive to work in this direction to meet National objectives.
He appreciated that Government of India has taken many steps including the FAME Scheme and PLI scheme for faster adoption of electric mobility and industry is working on the same path. At the same time, as we embark on the path, we need to identify challenges and plan for actions to remove the challenges to accelerate e-mobility.
Dr. Tapan Sahoo, Chair – Organizing Committee of iTEC India 2021 gave an overview of the 4th Edition of iTEC India 2021. The conference will have 5-Plenary sessions and 4-parallel technical sessions with 100+ technical papers on 8-topics related to ‘Transportation Electrification’. Technical experts from India and abroad will deliberate on issues related to ‘Sustainable Mobility’ in India with a focus on ‘Start-up Innovation’ for faster adoption of electric mobility.
Dr Sahoo added the Government of India has rolled out a PLI Scheme – ”National Program on Advanced Chemistry Cell Battery Storage (NPACC) and Advanced Automotive Technologies (AAT)”. These schemes are expected to provide the momentum for localisation of key components for electric mobility and is the right step in India’s journey – “AatmaNirbharBharat in e-mobility”.
Ms Pamela Tikku, Co-Chair, Organising Committee speaking on behalf of Mr. Dinesh Tyagi, Chair – Steering Committee of iTEC India 2021, emphasized the importance of the theme of the conference, to accelerate self-reliance as we move towards achieving the goal of an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’. It is a daunting task to build the huge supporting infrastructure in the form of charging stations, swappable batteries as well as a reduction in the weight of the batteries.
She said that concerted effort is required to ensure a smooth transition to Electric Vehicles across segments, including public transportation like Electric Buses and Trucks. She added that the recent example of Indian Auto industry leapfrogging from BS-4 to BS-6 within a short period has demonstrated the capabilities of Indian OEM’s to achieve seemingly impossible targets in a short time span.
She welcomed the policy makers, industry professionals and media to come and witness the event at ICAT, Manesar from Dec 16-18.