After winning the elections last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to invest in the country’s electricity, rail and other infrastructures to improve India’s economic performance, reported Chinese media Cali-Light.com.

Modi also plans to bring indoor lighting products to Indian families within the next five years, which is expected to expand LED and photovoltaic business opportunities.

The Indian government has started call of tenders for 20 million LED bulbs, and will be subsidizing local LED bulb consumers in the next two years, said Taiwanese LED manufacturers. In 1Q15, 7W or 600 lm equivalent LED bulb prices have more than halved from INR 230 (US$ 3.62) to INR 100, prices have been further reduced to INR 80.

Additionally, India is also planning to create a large Solid State Lighting (SSL) ecosystem within the next few years.

The Indian government requires LED lighting suppliers to partner up with local lighting manufacturers to assemble and package the LED bulb. The Indian government believes it will be issuing public tenders for 2 million LED bulbs every one to two months, and has publically procured about 1 million LED bulbs.

Initially, the Indian government requested international manufacturers to supply LED lighting products including Nichia, Lumileds, Cree and Osram. However, a source said the government lifted these restrictions and several Chinese LED manufacturers including MLS, Foshan Lighting, Nationstar, Honglitronic, and Taiwanese manufacturers including Edison Opto and Everlight have also passed supplier eligibility assessment.

Despite LED bulb prices in India indicate limited profitability, LED lighting manufacturers view entering the local market as a passage. The Indian market still has huge market potential and demands, which has led to intensified market competition, the source added.