'We Will Keep Investing In India'

Legrand, the France-based global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructure with $5.5 billion revenues, has an extensive network in India with 84 offices, 10 manufacturing facilities, 10 training centres and a distribution network of 750 partners and over 11,500 retailers. It has also done five acquisitions in India. Benoit Coquart, Global CEO of Legrand Group, talks to P.B. Jayakumar about business plans for India and global trends in spaces for living and working. Edited excerpts:

- P.B. Jayakumar

Digital solutions like Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence are fast changing the way factories, offices and homes function. As a global leader in this transformation, what do you see are the major changes happening and how are they significant for India?

In this era of digital transformation, there is a huge potential for digitalising traditional products. Take a light switch. It can be converted to a switch that can be switched off from outside. So, you can create scenarios, such as managing lighting using voice. All that is interesting for the end-user and that is possible only if you have a digital wiring device. Same is the case with circuit breakers or door phones. Door entry can be managed with a video phone, Internet, phone/smartphone. Besides convenience and comfort, you can reduce electricity bills. Remember, 35 per cent of the world’s energy is consumed by buildings. So, this is a digital revolution. Another area of big scope is assisted living where the aged can be made comfortable with digital solutions in homes.

Commercial buildings are also changing. For all types of buildings, we already have a digital solution. For example, if you add our solution to connect the switch gear, you can remotely access all electrical information about the gear. This is basically for the maintenance team for commercial buildings where one needs to monitor switch gear and installations. We estimate that 60 per cent of the IoT market worldwide will be for commercial buildings and professional use and 40 per cent for use by end-users. Therefore, the professional market would be bigger than the end-user market. Our comprehensive product range addresses a market worth over $100 billion.