One cannot just import a product and brand it in India as yours! says Navin from Megh Neel, Coimbatore
EVHUB Team had conversation with Mr. Navin C.C, the Founder & MD of Megh neel Renewable Power systems pvt ltd , a Coimbatore based green startup. Despite being from IT background, he himself developed the prototypes before actually starting business operations. You can find below interview to more about his initiative and insights about the industry.
- (1888PressRelease) August 27, 2015 - Please tell me about you and your company? What is your professional background? When the company was started?
Our Company Megh Neel was founded in the year 2011 with the primary objective of bringing green technology products to the mainstream by making them reliable, affordable and competitive when compared to existing technologies. To meet our primary objectives we felt the need to develop the underlying technologies ourselves and therefore we spent the first few years primarily on research & development activities. Our initial efforts have shown good results, we have been able to design & develop a variety of products.
Prior to Megh Neel I was working for an IT major based in Chennai. After about 14 years in IT I quit the field in 2010 as I wanted to pursue by child hood passion.
Why do you choose to work in renewable energy domain?
I chose this domain because there is an urgent need for our society to switch to alternate renewable energy sources. There is also growing awareness worldwide of the environmental impact caused by the emission of greenhouse gases and the need to adopt clean zero emission technologies.
What are your company products? Can you please give us more details?
We wanted to positively influence every aspect of our customer's lives by offering energy efficient devices or home appliances to battery operated electric vehicles. Keeping this in mind we have developed a number of products. I wouldn't be able to list all of them as they are confidential and are yet to be rolled out into the market. We have developed a smart phone integrated high power electric scooter. The scooter is indigenous and all of its components including chassis, body, motor, drive mechanism, electronic circuits and the android app were designed and built by us. The scooter is in its advanced stage of testing and we are hopeful of rolling out the product in 2016.
Coming from a entirely different professional background, how did fit yourself while developing 2your products? What are the challenges you faced while development of your prototypes?
Coming from a different professional background has only helped me in many ways. Being an 'outsider' has helped me better understand issues facing the customer and the industry without bias and identify ways to resolve them.
The Customer has to be the central theme when you are developing a product. You need to understand customer requirements, woes and built your product around it. One cannot just import a product and brand it in India as yours. This is one of the fundamental reasons why electric scooters have failed in India.
The challenges we faced while developing our prototypes were many. Ours being a boot strapped startup we did not have enough resources to start with and we had to spend a lot of time and effort in learning.
Who are your customers? How is the sales trend for your products? How is the customer receiving your products? What are the challenges facing in sales perspective?
Our products are meant for the mass market and as mentioned earlier will range from energy efficient appliances to battery operated vehicles. Our end products are in different stages of development and yet to hit the market. The earliest release expected is in the month of November this year. We are also offering energy efficient BLDC motors like electric scooter motors, e-rickshaw motors, ceiling fan motors and consultancy services to industries who would like to incorporate them in their products. The trend so far has been very encouraging.
How the government's "Make in India" initiative helpful your startup? Are there any incentives for your product categories? As an Green entrepreneur, do you think government need to look into more aspects while giving incentives?
It's a very good initiative in that it has brought focus. The incentives are mostly for the end customers and not for the industry.
What are your future plans in terms of expansion in terms of technology development, team building and new products? Are you looking for funding?
Although we have definite plans for expansion both in terms of team and newer products it is too early for us to elaborate now. We recognize that research and development activities will be crucial to our survival and therefore R&D will continue to play an important part in our organization.
Yes we are looking for funding. Although we have managed with our own funds so far, external funding will definitely help us go up a notch or two.
###
space
space
Satisfied Users & 
Approved Press Releases
Print
Email
Report Spam