INDIA CANCELS SMART METER CONTRACT FROM CHINA 

 Two years ago, there was a global bidding called by India which was for procurement of 2 million smart meters, various companies took part in the bidding but it was won by a company called PT Hexing which is originally from Indonesia. PT Hexing Company which is owned by Hexing Electrical company whose headquarters is in Hangzhou, China. 

 Smart meter is a device which can help to reduce the usage of electricity and it can also detect the loss of electricity, and lessen the loss effectively. India decided to use this new technology and gave a contract for the same. As per the contract, the tender condition was that the smart meters are supposed to be manufactured in India. But this condition was not fulfilled by PT Hexing Company. India had a contract to purchase smart meters with PT Hexing company which is Indonesia based company and it had already given 10,000 smart meters to India which is already in use but now State-run Energy Efficiency Service Ltd (EESL) has cancelled 2million smart meter tender which was awarded to PT Hexing. As the company has failed to comply with local contract norms which says that the manufacturing of the smart meters must have been done in the geographical location of India, instead the company manufactured in its Indonesian facility which completely failed the wants kept by India in the contract.  

But India recently barred the non-local suppliers due to the current economic condition where there is drastic decline in the economy, India considering the current situation has barred non-local suppliers in bidding for new contracts.  And as per the latest order, dated on 28th July 2020 the department of power ministry has made it mandatory that tenders for equipment and works must be awarded only to local companies with high localization.