DITAA 2026: India could be 10 years away from becoming a true appliance innovator, says Sanjay Jain, Director, Elanpro
Follow UsIndia has made progress in appliance manufacturing but still has ground to cover in innovation.
Supply chain disruptions have highlighted India’s dependence on imported components.
Commercial refrigeration remains behind global markets in areas such as compressors and refrigerants.
India’s Top Appliance Awards (DITAA 2026), organised by Digit, brought together key stakeholders and senior industry executives to examine the changing landscape of India’s home appliance and technology market. Discussions around manufacturing, localisation, innovation, supply chains and sustainability were the main highlights of the event alongside the opinions provided by the industry leaders on what India should do next. Speaking at a panel discussion in DITAA 2026, Sanjay Jain, Director of Elanpro, also shared his thoughts on where the country stands today in terms of becoming an appliance innovator.
SurveyJain said India’s development has followed a gradual path, starting with assembly and moving towards localisation and manufacturing. Innovation and design come later in that journey. While talking about innovation, he said, ‘I think that’s a process for any economy to develop. The first thing which you start doing is you start assembling.’
He further explained that India has already moved through some of these stages, with companies increasingly manufacturing products locally. The next step, he said, is to build stronger capabilities around designing and developing products rather than simply producing them. ‘Then you start trying to do some localisation and move into complete manufacturing. We have done the same. And then you start innovating, designing,’ Jain said.
Pointing towards the challenges around global supply chains, Jain added that it shows why India still has some distance to cover. He further explained that disruptions in recent years have pushed companies to look for more components that can be developed in India, but some critical parts are still largely dependent on imports.
Taking commercial refrigeration as an example, he said that compressors remain a major challenge. While he discussed the challenges, he also pointed to areas where India has made progress. He said appliances have become much better than they were earlier and noted the development seen in mobile technology.
However, he believes several specialised areas of the appliance industry are still behind global markets. He said, ‘In my line, particularly commercial refrigeration, we are doing a lot of backward engineering because the globe is much, much ahead of us, be it in refrigerants or compressors or other things.’
