The proliferation in the use of sensors within Indian market has encouraged both vendors and users to invest significantly towards the growth of this market. According to a report released by TechSci Research, titled “India Sensors Market Forecast and Opportunities, 2020”, India will log a CAGR of over 20 per cent from 2015-2020. The report also hints out to remarkable growth for sensor market soon. This growth will be a direct outcome of rising automotive sales, increasing need for automatization in industries, escalating security concerns, and ongoing technological developments in consumer electronics.
Sensors are shaping business and lifestyles worldwide. These devices help to detect any change in electrical, physical, or any other quantities, by producing an output which indicates user of the change. The output is usually furnished in the form of an electrical or optical signal.
Within the market, the fastest growing segments include gas sensors, image sensors, accelerometers, and position sensors. Automotive and consumer electronics industry are also contributing significantly towards increasing demand of sensors. The growth in sensor market can also be attributed growth of the industrial sector as a whole, and the introduction of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors.
Different types of Sensors in Indian market
The different types of sensors notice within Indian markets include Electric current or Potential or Magnetic or Radio sensors, Humidity sensor, Fluid velocity or Flow sensors, Pressure sensors, Thermal or Heat or Temperature sensors, Proximity sensors, Optical sensors, Position sensors, Chemical sensor, Environment sensor, Magnetic switch sensor, etc.
Some of the most widely used sensors include:
- Engine coolant temperature sensor, or ECT sensor – It is used to measure the engine temperature.
- Parking sensors – It is used to alert the driver of unseen obstacles during parking maneuvers
- Speedometer – It is used measure the instantaneous speed of a land vehicle
- Speed sensor – It is used to detect the speed of an object.
- Medical sensors – They are used to deliver healthcare services.
- PIR Sensor, or Pyroelectric sensor – This type of sensor helps to measure the infrared radiation emitted from objects in its field of view.
- Ultrasonic Sensor – These type of sensors are governed by the same principle that governs sonar or radar technologies. The attributes of a target can be acquired by generating the high-frequency-sound waves (around 40kHz), and interpreting the resultant echoes.
Market study on the prominent Sensor segments
The automotive sensor market in India spans wide variety of sensors within its extensive banner. The market has been expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.64 percent over the period 2016-2021, to establish itself as a staggering USD 1.51 billion market. Moreover, Government is driving efforts to push the growth of automotive sensors in all the vehicle segments of the Indian automotive market. The sales of passenger vehicles have also shown a rapid growth in India, with y-to-y sales growing by 8.45% till October 2015, which reflects upon the growth in automotive sensors market.
The pressure sensors’ market isn’t far behind in this race, and has been estimated to reach USD 0.66 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 8.66% over the period 2017-2022. This automotive sector utilizes pressure sensors for various applications, such as TPMS and exhaust gas pressure of EGR systems. This has resulted in increased demand for pressure sensors. The pressure sensors market is dominated by piezoresistive and capacitive sensors. These types of sensors see extensive use in automotive, medical, petrochemical, and oil & gas industries.
Similar growth has been noticed in case of medical sensors’ market as projected estimates state it will reach USD 15.01 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 8.5% between 2016 and 2022. People are increasingly adopting smart healthcare devices and wearables which has spurred the manufacture of medical sensors.
Sensors promise significant growth potential for future
Environmental gas sensors is another market that could lead the game. Traditionally, gas sensors have traditionally been limited to industrial leak detection and household carbon monoxide alarms. This market will be essentially driven by the growing awareness to restrict air pollution. Combining miniaturization and cost reduction in the chemical gas sensor industry has enabled the creation of a new environmental monitoring ecosystem, which has been projected to worth $361 million in 2017, $2.4 billion in 2022 and over $3 billion in 2027. All these events happening at global scale will trigger similar spurt within the Indian gas sensors’ market.
Power industry is another market where new sensor technologies and intelligent sensor product could see a robust growth. This will mostly be fueled by the need to modernize existing power generation plants to meet efficiency targets and soaring energy demands. A report states that sensors market in power generation will nearly double from $3.82 billion in 2016 to reach $7.37 billion in 2022. The same report claims that by 2022, Asia-Pacific will be one of the biggest contenders for sensors in the power industry worldwide, as many countries such as India embrace smart grids.
Predictive nature of sensors paves way for market growth
Enterprise leaders in the sensors’ segment and vendors are investing significantly towards extending their products’ technical capabilities and expanding their product portfolio. This competition among vendors has unlocked newer capabilities in sensors, as they are increasingly tuning predictive in nature. Dr. Rajender Thusu, Research Analyst, Measurement & Instrumentation, Frost & Sullivan notes, “Sensors are gradually becoming predictive in nature, which will help in ensuring accident-free and clean power-generating plants.”
Rise of Sensor Hubs
The use of sensor hubs has witnessed significant escalation within the last two years, because of their extensive use in low-power sensor processing tasks. The dedicated processing elements support the “always on” sensor processing trends, besides tackling the limitations of battery technology.
Projected estimates state that the overall market for all types of sensor hubs will exceed 1.0 billion units in 2015, rising to nearly 2.0 billion in 2018. Sensor hubs have been incorporated in smartphones by Samsung, Apple and Motorola, for sometime now. The proliferation in the manufacture of sensor hubs will push the enterprise ecosystem within India to invest towards the growth of this market.
Key players in Indian Sensor ecosystem
Spaceflight Industries’ is a great example of innovation in space using sensors. The firm recently revealed its BlackSky Spectra platform, which will allow users to discover archive images and task new images from 13 high-resolution imaging spacecraft. Jason Andrews, CEO, Spaceflight Industries comments, “BlackSky is transforming the way we perceive world by integrating the widest variety of sensors into a revolutionary, easy to use service.”
We can convincingly reach an agreement on the fact that the market for sensors looks robust for India, and is continuing to grow extensively. This has encouraged many Indian players to come forward, and exhibit their own unique value in the sensor-based solutions space.
Companies Autonics India, Ecosens, JUMO India Pvt. Ltd., Keyence India, OMRON India, Sensinova, and SICK India among others are leading examples of companies dominating the sensors’ market within the country. At Autonics, a wide variety of sensors is being continually developed for enterprise use, while Ecosens is renowned for delivering its sensor service to the electrical equipment industry. JUMO is another organization leading the segment for industrial sensors and automation technology. Keyence is also a leading provider of sensors, measuring systems, laser markers, microscopes, and machine vision systems worldwide, while OMRON furnishes solutions for sensing & control technology, advanced automation, and healthcare. Similarly, there are several other firms within the country’s enterprise ecosystem who design smart and innovative sensor products.
