Swami Ramdev-promoted Patanjali Ayurved Ltd is reportedly planning to manufacture solar power equipment.
Patanjali is set to foray into solar power equipment manufacturing. Stating that the foray was “in line with the swadeshi movement”, Patanjali Ayurved Managing Director Acharya Balkrishna told the media that solar power had the ability to enable each Indian household to have electricity. “We are here to make that happen,” he added. This will be the company’s first venture in infrastructure, the report added.
However, how exactly will the company gain the expertise required to fabricate solar equipment? According to the report, Patanjali acquired Advance Navigation and Solar Technologies Pvt Ltd earlier this year. The company’s facility, the report added, has a manufacturing capacity of 120 Mw. Further, the financial daily reported that the company plans to invest close to Rs 100 crore in manufacturing solar equipment.
Its Greater Noida factory should be fully operational within the next few months, according to the financial daily. “We will manufacture solar panels in India without compromising the quality. But we are not going to get into the price war with the Chinese solar panels,” Balkrishna said. In fact, the Patanjali managing director told the media that the company had already built solar modules for its captive use, after which it decided to employ its “existing capacity to manufacture solar modules and sell in the market”.
Patanjali’s move comes even as the government is working on a solar manufacturing policy. Speaking to the financial daily in an exclusive interview, Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy Raj Kumar Singh said that among the broad contours of the policy, which is in the works, was a plan to give a capital subsidy of up to 30 percent.
This latest move is in line with the company’s stated objectives.
