Diving equipment supplier, Planet Scuba India (PSI), has tied up with Taiwanese design house, CREST Diving, for the development of scuba diving equipment in India. It is a first-of-its-kind venture as India imports 100 per cent of the diving equipment, says Madhava Reddy, managing director, PSI.
“With the help of Taiwan and CREST Diving, we will bring India up to speed on existing diving technologies, and we plan to create new products for both India and the rest of the world,” said Madhava Reddy.
The company is ready with prototypes for equipment such as helicopter emergency breathing systems (HEBS), breathing apparatus – cold water regulator system, buoyancy control device (BCD), and CRB-M – combat rebreather diving system. “We are now evaluating the right manufacturing infrastructure to start building these products,” Reddy said to BusinessLine.
“It is a great step towards the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. Defence Bioengineering and Electromedical Laboratory Ltd (DEBEL) is developing several underwater breathing and survival products for the military, and will support all such ventures that lead to the indigenisation of technology and products,” said Indu Shekar, Joint Director, DEBEL, a unit of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
PSI’s objective is to create an end-to-end dive equipment manufacturing ecosystem in the country. According to Reddy, India possesses the required infrastructure, including facilities for producing precise metal moulds and producing various grades of plastics and related polymer products.
“I am already impressed with the engineering and diving skills here. We see India as not only a big market, but also a place we can co-develop products with our Indian partner,” said Brad Chen, Managing Director, CREST Diving.
According to the company, the $50 billion global scuba diving equipment manufacturing market builds high-precision engineering skills to create underwater breathing and survival systems. The major brands in the industry are based in Europe and the US.