According to industry experts, backed by strong activity on the policy reforms front, the Rs 9,600 crore lighting industry is expecting to clock a healthy growth in 2013. Even though the industry faced some rough weather on project sales, the consumer category is said to be witnessing good growth.

Arun Gupta, global CEO, NTL Lemnis, pointed out that, the LED Industry is expected to reach around US $ 500 million by 2015 in India. Within the segment, LED street light and LED solar light's demand to increase by leaps and bounds in coming years,'' said Arun Gupta, global CEO, NTL Lemnis.

As per Elcoma, the industry body representing electric lamp and component manufacturers, the lighting industry in India is growing at nearly 17-18% per annum over the last two to three years. In order to focus attention on this industry and ensure that it derives the maximum attention by policy makers, Elcoma has established a secretariat in Delhi to follow up not only with the government, but with all concerned stakeholders and decision makers,'' said Gupta.

With a strong movement towards sustainable solutions in lighting, LEDs are expected to be the next choice in lighting for consumers. Europe has banned high wattage incandescent bulbs and is slowly phasing out the lower wattage bulbs as well. There is also not much of a market for CFLs in Europe and they are shifting towards LEDs. After Tsunami in 2011, Japan is focused on replacing all incandescent bulbs and fluorescent lamps with more energy efficient LED lighting by 2020. Big players like IKEA have started replacing CFL with LED bulbs from their stores worldwide. In fact, IKEA has taken it upon themselves to completely move out of CFLs by 2015,'' said Gupta, elaborating on the growth opportunity for LEDs.

Lighting industry in India too is witnessing a robust growth. The sector is projected to grow to Rs 8,000-12,000 crore in the next 5 years, of which NTL Lemnis is eyeing a 5% market share.

A McKinsey report has predicted that 70% of lighting will become LED based by 2020. The key segments identified in this changeover will be hospitality, retail, outdoors & residential. At present, in general lighting the percentage of home buyers for LEDs is considerably low due to high costs. This is expected to change over a period of time.