http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-06-14/news/50581676_1_factories-act-horsepower-power-shortages The new factories law on the anvil will ........ kill all references to the British electricity unit of horsepower to belatedly complete India's switch to the metric system, officials familiar with the matter said. Instead of ascertaining the right horsepower context for their operations (there are at least five different formulae to calculate different forms of mechanical, electrical and boiler power in horsepower terms), they can simply inform the factory inspector about the 'kilowatts of power' their manufacturing unit will run on.
The horsepower legacy embedded in India's law governing factories passed in 1948 has inexplicably survived even as the country made a conscious decision in 1954 to switch to the metric system for measurements from the British imperial system of ounces, pounds and horsepower. For the record, one horsepower equals nearly 746 watts. A thousand watts make up a kilowatt. Though the factories law was last amended 27 years ago, the need to change horsepower clauses to kilowatts slipped through the cracks. But this was not the only necessary change that slipped through.
