AC, refrigeration market can be widened: Vishal Kapur

The ISHARE has its Institute of Excellence in Delhi, which offers advanced diploma, certified professional, specialised workshops and skill development programmes.

National president elect of Indian Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers Vishal Kapur in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. -Photo: By Special Arangement

With a vow to set the trend for others, Indian Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ISHRAE) set up in 1981 has taken several initiatives to prepare students to become leaders of tomorrow.

Realising that India needs a large talent pool due to huge market for refrigeration and AC, ISHRAE was not only training engineering students in mechanical and electrical engineering in both online and formal modes, but also others including ITI students to undergo short-term courses to gain knowledge in the subject.

Institute at Delhi

The ISHARE has its Institute of Excellence in Delhi, which offers advanced diploma, certified professional, specialised workshops and skill development programmes.

“We will open another IoE at Bengaluru by June. We also want to have two more centres in the West and the South in the next couple of years,” ISHRAE national president-elect Vishal Kapur told The Hindu on Thursday.

The ISHRAE has 9,000 professional members at 41 locations across the country and 8,000 student members from 120 plus colleges/universities.

The student members are also encouraged to avail free access to advanced journals and publications and take up research projects by the institute, Mr. Kapur said.

He said that they regularly bring reputed employers to various campuses for recruiting youngsters under their flagship programme ‘Job Junction.’

Green technology

Predicting a bright future for Indian market, he said that the country had emerged as the second largest after America in using green technologies. The decision to make mandatory the sale of star-rated ACs and refrigerators has evoked a very good response spelling a death blow to the grey market.

Mr. Kapur said that as part of their technical programme, they had prepared standard procedures for star rating for the Bureau of Energy Efficiency and Bureau of Indian Standards. For chillers, variable refrigerant flow and air handling units (for hospitals), the ISHRAE is rewriting the standards.

Asked to comment on fallout of economy slump, he said that the industry had not been affected to a large extent.

“The penetration is not much - one of the lowest in the world compared to the country’s size. There is wide scope to increase it manifold,” he opined.