India has become the top emerging market for Hochiki Europe, global manufacturer of quality fire detectors and alarms for commercial and industrial application, said Rohit Harjani, Country Manager for Indian Sub-Continent for Hochiki Europe.

“India and the Middle East are our target markets. In spite of oil prices being low, Middle East has a lot of private wealth and size of projects is very big. We are focussing on South America as well,” Harjani told BusinessLine . On the reasons for optimism on the Indian market, he said: “A lot of foreign investment is coming into India and with the government’s focus on Make in India, a lot of industrial growth will come in. For example, Neemrana was a village on the highway earlier. Now, there is a Japanese investment park. Suddenly, Neemrana is on India’s map in Japan. Industrial growth will require safety equipment as well.”

At present, India does not contribute much to the company’s total revenue globally as developed nations account for a chunk of the sales.

“But, geographically, India is a big nation. Also, because of India-Japan relations being strong, Japan sees a lot of industrial growth here and that’s why we also see India as a massive market,” Harjani said.

Hochiki in India provides a wide range of fire protection systems meeting all fire detection and emergency lighting requirements. The company expects to garner 30-50 per cent growth year-on-year till 2022.

On the overall attitude towards safety in India, Harjani said that the country is becoming a lot stricter in terms of safety compliance, especially if one looks at the the new buildings. “But fire officers and fire brigade department have to be a lot stricter in doing surprise checks,” he added.

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