The Canadian Standards Association Group (CSA), an internationally accredited standards development and testing and certification organisation, is opening its first lab in India in Whitefield, Bangalore, on Tuesday.

Plan India Spread across 26,000 sq ft, the lab will offer testing and certification for medical and healthcare equipment, industrial control products, automation and IT audio/visual technology products, appliances and control equipment.

“We are committed to investing $50 to $100 million in India over the next five years as we think the time is ripe for our solutions to take off in the country. We see the changes in the political system, the changes in consumer demand, changes in technology areas and are well-positioned to leverage it,” Ash Sahi, President and CEO of the $300-million CSA Group, told Business Line .

“While we invested more in China over the last 10 years, where our revenue grew from a zero base to $100 million, the plan is to grow our India revenues from a few million dollars today to $100 million by 2019.” Besides opening a new lab for its customers such as GE, Philips, L&T and Crompton Greaves, the company plans to boost its India revenue through acquisitions. “Globally, we have grown our revenue by acquiring testing companies in niche capabilities areas such as automotive in Germany, industrial in the UK and medical in Switzerland. We are in talks with a few small family-owned testing companies in India whose capabilities can supplement our expertise in 54 technology domains,” said Sahi.

The three big focus areas for CSA in India are automotive testing and certification; medical and healthcare testing; and hazardous locations or industrial testing and certification. “The growing middle class in India is creating a huge demand for automotive because they have the buying power, huge demand for medical services because they can afford it and a huge demand for industrial because the infrastructure requirements are big in India with the need for new roads, energy plants, refineries, etc,” said Sahi.

The company is in talks with the Bureau of Indian Standards to collaborate with them to rewrite the existing standards. “We are also looking to bring in other new standards that we have introduced globally to India, in the areas of solar, electric vehicles, battery storage, gas standards, hydrogen fuels, etc.”

Safety standards Besides this, CSA is interested in bringing in an increased focus on safety standards in India. “Indian manufacturers must change the way they make products to include both performance and safety standards, which is the norm globally,” pointed out Sahi.

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