Out with the old, in with the cool new AC: Govt working on scheme to replace units that are over 10 yrs old with fresh
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Kolkata: The power ministry is working on a plan to push customers to replace air-conditioners that are over 10 years old with new five-star energy efficiency rated ones by offering them at below-market prices, two people aware of the plans told ET.One of the proposals under evaluation allows customers to scrap old ACs with authorised e-waste partners appointed by manufacturers or the government, and receive a discount on new units purchased through their electricity distributor (discom).The lower price would be made possible through bulk procurement and competitive bidding, following a model similar to the Ujala scheme , under which 368.7 million LED bulbs have been distributed through discoms over the past decade, the people said.Another option being considered is to have manufacturers offer higher scrappage value for old ACs , and compensate them through either a government incentive or energy credit from discoms that would be adjusted against electricity bills. Consumers could then buy new ACs at market rates from retail stores.Union power minister Manohar Lal last week met leaders of large AC manufacturers including Blue Star managing director B Thiagarajan, Daikin India MD KJ Jawa, and Voltas MD-designate Mukundan Menon, to discuss the matter, people cited above said.The power ministry has formed an internal committee to deliberate and finalise the norms, they added.Thiagarajan confirmed the meeting with the minister but did not share further details.He said there are about 50 million 10-years-or-older AC units in the country."Consumers typically shift their old ACs to another room or sell to a shop in exchange, which are then reused," Thiagarajan told ET. "Hence, the best way is to scrap them and consumers buying the latest and most energy efficient 5-star ACs."Meanwhile, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), which mandates energy norms for electrical appliances, is planning to revise energy efficiency norms of ACs every two years, down from 3-4 years at present, people cited above said.The next rating tightening is planned in 2026 and another one in 2028. The last revision was undertaken in July 2022.A large section of the industry, however, is against such frequent rating changes as it involves incremental cost of research."The industry has to invest around '400 crore for each rating change, which becomes difficult to recover if there are frequent changes," an industry executive said on condition of anonymity.Energy rating change should be considered only if there is significant technology change and not every two years, the person said.Thiagarajan said every rating change will improve the energy efficiency of the AC by around 10% while also pushing up prices by 5-7%.It's estimated the installed base of ACs will grow 3-4 times by 2030, which will increase energy consumption by 300-400%, he said."Frequent rating changes need inventory planning and supply chain management. What we need is a breakthrough technology in AC to make them really energy efficient like EVs in automobiles and LED in lighting," Thiagarajan said.
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Time of India
9 hours ago
- Time of India
How Blue Star's CIO is shaping an AI-ready data estate
In an industrial world driven by precision, performance, and unpredictability, data has emerged as the new compass. Yet, most enterprises are still wrestling with fragmented, siloed data that refuses to speak the same language. Udit Pahwa, the CIO of Blue Star, has been on a quiet mission to change his three-year journey, Udit has been building an 'intelligent data estate' not as a buzzword but as a practical, measurable foundation to deliver AI-led business outcomes. In an exclusive DeepTalks session, he took us behind the curtain, into the decisions, mistakes, frameworks, and breakthroughs that have shaped Blue Star's transformation. The data deluge that reaches the boardroom 'Traditionally, data was structured and lived comfortably within ERPs and CRMs,' Pahwa begins. 'But today, the universe of unstructured and real-time data, from social media, call centers, factory sensors, is exploding in volume and richness.' The challenge, Pahwa explains, is no longer about having data, but connecting it. Structured data is predictable. Unstructured data is ambiguous but full of context. Real-time data never waits. The power lies in unifying them, if only organizations can figure out how. 'This isn't just a CIO's headache anymore,' Pahwa adds. 'It's a boardroom discussion. Boards want agility, frugality, and data-driven decisions. They expect new revenue streams from data-as-a-service models. That's why this matters.' Building the intelligent data estate So, what makes a data estate 'intelligent'? Pahwa breaks it down into a triangle: Architecture, governance, and outcomes. Architecture is the plumbing, the cloud-native infrastructure, the streaming platforms, the integration logic, and the decisions around centralized or decentralized models. Governance is the invisible shield, defining data quality, security, privacy, and ownership. 'If you don't get governance right,' Pahwa says, 'you'll end up with garbage in, garbage out.' And then come the outcomes. 'Ultimately, why are we doing all this? We must tie every data initiative to a measurable business benefit, higher NPS, faster launches, more uptime, more revenue.' Blue star's journey Blue Star's journey didn't begin with flashy tools. It began with purpose. 'Three years ago, we started with structured data,' Pahwa shares. 'ERP and CRM were reliable sources. We focused on sales and service. Once that base was strong, we began ingesting unstructured data, social media, voice-to-text from our call centers, for sentiment analysis.' Today, they're working on real-time ingestion from the shop floor. It's an ongoing evolution, not a sprint. 'We're now capturing sensor data like temperature, vibration, and humidity. Combined with digital maintenance logs, this helps us predict failures before they happen. That's real ROI,' he says. Lakehouse or mesh? Centralized lakehouses are powerful, Udit says, they simplify storage, analytics, and governance. But they can also become bottlenecks. Decentralized data meshes allow domain-specific insights but require stronger cultural shifts and governance. 'So what's the answer? Hybrid,' Pahwa says. 'You take the best of both worlds. Maintain a centralized lakehouse where needed, but give autonomy to business domains with proper guardrails.' At Blue Star, they've chosen centralization, for now, but they're future-ready to adapt as needs evolve. The vector question Pahwa cautions against jumping on the vector database bandwagon just because it's hot. 'Ask: Do you need semantic search? Personalization? Anomaly detection? If yes, then run a pilot.' He explains vector databases in simple terms: 'It's like attaching numbers to your data and storing similar meanings together. You get faster, smarter searches. But only if your use case demands it.' One powerful example Pahwa cites is using GenAI for shop floor technicians. 'Imagine uploading all user manuals, and the technician just asks a chatbot: 'I'm stuck with this belt issue, what do I do?' That's AI with purpose.' Real-time or batch? Let business value decide 'Real-time data is expensive,' Pahwa admits. 'It demands more memory, network, compute, and monitoring.' So how does Blue Star decide? 'We go real-time only where it matters, machine safety, customer experience, dynamic pricing. For strategic planning and long-term insights, batch works just fine.' The hidden culture shift Perhaps the most underappreciated part of Blue Star's transformation is the cultural shift. 'Cloud-native architecture changed our operations,' Pahwa says. 'But fostering a data-driven mindset across the company? That's been our biggest pivot.' Democratizing data ownership and literacy, making sure the business, not just IT, owns data decisions, has created long-term change. Governance without bureaucracy Governance is often seen as a hurdle. Pahwa's fix? Governance-as-code. 'Treat policies like software. Automate schema enforcement and validation. Use data ops pipelines. It shouldn't feel like red tape, it should just work,' he says. DPDP and consent management With India's DPDP Act, privacy isn't optional anymore. Blue Star is preparing with a centralized consent management platform. 'You need revocable consent, transparency, and embedded privacy by design. This isn't just compliance, it's trust,' he says. Vendor selection Pahwa emphasizes long-term partnerships over transactional deals. His layered approach: Hyperscalers for infraData platform specialistsML and vector database vendors Evaluation goes beyond price: support models, IPRs, privacy, exit clauses, all count. 'The best vendor is one who aligns with our business outcome,' he says. FinOps and the cloud cost dilemma 'Cloud costs can spiral fast,' Pahwa warns. His three-pillar mantra: Visibility: FinOps tools to track every GB, every Right-size resources. Use serverless where Make cost consciousness a cultural trait. The future of data estates In the next 3 - 5 years, Pahwa sees: Self-optimizing pipelines: Data lakes that fix + GenAI: Real-time intelligence at the literacy everywhere: Prompt engineering will be as common as enablement: Domains will own pipelines, but guardrails will remain centralized. His message to fellow CIOs and CISOs? 'Start with enablement, not control. Build self-service platforms. Invest in automation. And above all, focus on business value,' he says. As the conversation ends, Pahwa reflects on how far organizations have come. 'Data is no longer a back-office topic,' he concludes. 'It influences everything, from strategy to execution. And it's not just a corporate issue anymore. In our personal lives too, we're learning to trust data for decisions.'
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Business Standard
a day ago
- Business Standard
Blue Star share price rise 4% after posting Q1 results; check details
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Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Hindustan Times
PM: India will script its success story at Kartavya Bhavan
The dream of a developed India will take shape in Kartavya Bhavan (Central Secretariat Building 3), Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday after inaugurating the first of the 10 upcoming state-of-the-art Common Central Secretariat (CCS) buildings, which will house offices of key ministries, including home, external affairs, petroleum and natural gas, and the office of the principal scientific advisor to the PM. PM: India will script its success story at Kartavya Bhavan 'From these very buildings, the dream of a developed India will take shape, and this goal will be achieved only through our collective efforts. Together, let us make India the world's third-largest economy and script the success story of Make in India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat,' he said at an event at Kartavya Path. The CCS-3 is the first building made ready as part of the marquee Central Vista revamp conceived in 2019. Pointing out that the colonial-era administrative buildings, which were earlier housing key ministry offices, had subpar working conditions, offering insufficient space, inadequate lighting, and poor ventilation, the PM said: 'Even after gaining Independence, the country's administrative machinery continued to operate for decades out of buildings constructed during the British era...' Besides, he added, the central government will save ₹1,500 crore rent annually after construction of the CCS. 'Many ministries of the Indian government were being run from 50 different locations in Delhi. Many of these ministries are run from rented buildings, which translates to a huge sum of money on rent. While the number is quite big, approximately the number comes to ₹1,500 crore annually... It is estimated that around 8,000-10,000 officials travel between ministries, which means many hundreds vehicles are used, which costs money, create traffic snarls, and leads to time wastage.' In the past 11 years, India has built a governance model that is transparent, responsive and citizen-centric, he said. Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister, accompanied by Union housing and urban affairs (HUA) minister Manohar Lal and HUA secretary Katikithala Srinivas, took a tour of the newly constructed building. 'Kartavya Bhavan, on the path of duty, is a symbol of our unwavering commitment and continuous efforts toward serving every individual. It will not only help in swiftly delivering our policies and schemes to the people but will also provide a new momentum to the country's development. I am deeply proud to dedicate this building, an example of state-of-the-art infrastructure, to the nation,' PM posted on X in Hindi. This makeover is the centrepiece of PM Modi's bid to leave a new architectural legacy, a contrast to the previous mix of colonial-era architecture from the seat of power. The ones already delivered are the new Parliament building, which hosted its first session in September 2023; the redeveloped Raj Path as Kartavya Path, which opened in September 2022, and the Vice-President's enclave, which was ready in April 2024. The new Parliament building and the Vice President's enclave were delayed by more than a year as the entire Central Vista overhaul was originally scheduled to be completed by 2024. Now CCS-3, along with CCS-1 and 2, is set for completion in September, with 88% of the project already completed, a government reply in Parliament on July 24 said. CCS-10 (28% of construction completed) is scheduled to be ready by April 2026, while CCS-6 and CCS-7 (1% of the work completed) are expected to finish construction by October 2026, it added. Speaking on Tuesday, Union ministry of housing and urban affairs officials said that now all the remaining CCS buildings and the PM's office and residence will be made ready within 2027-end. .
