Datta Kuvalekar on Make in India

Paper Mart: ‘Make in India’ is a spirited and zealous attempt on the part of the Govt. of India for laying strong manufacturing foundation in the country. Does this program signify much in terms of real manufacturing growth to take place?

Datta Kuvalekar: The Make in India campaign is a well-intentioned campaign. To ensure that it succeeds, mere visibility and advertising campaigns won’t be adequate. What we need here are measures to boost consumer confidence that will spur industrial investment climate bolstered by ground level changes in Finance, Land, and Labor policies.

India needs to make real changes in its infrastructure (although much progress has happened over the decade) and investors need to experience the ease of conducting business in India. The focused Make in India campaign holds out a lot of promise, but without quick supporting/enabling mechanisms, it may not result in the expected investments.
PM: Does ‘Make in India’ program augers well for the growth of Indian pulp and paper industry?

DK: The growth of Indian pulp and paper industry is dependent on many factors –ranging from demand for various grades of paper to manufacturing climate for paper industry. The hindering factors that hold back paper industry from rapid expansion include availability of cost effective raw material, labor policies, land acquisition for plantations, and mills.

I would suggest that captains of Indian paper industry should list out their hindering factors which must get due attention from the State and Central Governments and rather quickly for the Slogan “Make in India” to become a trigger for Indian paper industry.
PM: What role do you see for yourself if a robust manufacturing of pulp and paper is to take place on account of this program?

DK: We do sincerely hope that Make in India brings good cheer to the pulp and paper industry. This will see major rebuilds and new green field and brownfield projects. As Forbes Marshall, we can support the Industry in terms of engineering their projects from a perspective of energy efficiency, safety and productivity based on our business domain of utility management and instrumentation.

Increased rebuild and project activity needs our products and services –ranging from Steam products like biomass boilers; steam distribution accessories like pressure reducing valves and steam traps; condensate pumps, paper machine steam, and condensate systems; hoods and pocket ventilation systems to control instrumentation systems like Quality Control Systems, DCS systems, flow/level/vibration and other process parameter measuring sensors.
Given the focus on environment both in water and air, we have a complete package for pulp and paper environmental monitoring. We have recently invested in a Mega factory that has capacity to meet the surge in demand resulting from an enhanced investment climate. This factory received the award for being the most well designed factory in India and we have designed it for the superior quality that Forbes Marshall is now synonymous for.
PM: As a key supplier to pulp and paper industry, would you be seeing a growth spurt in your own enterprise because of this program?

DK: Indeed, an enhanced investment in pulp and paper industry would see a positive impact on our paper business vertical. We have built enough engineering and manufacturing capacity to support this expected spurt in paper industry.

PM: If we consider your industry in general, does ‘Make in India’ target it directly through policies and incentives? What are the key challenges you think your industry is facing and which you prefer to get addressed through such national programs?

DK: Our industry is largely based on delivering energy savings and productivity improvements to our clients through our services and products. The Make in India campaign can enhance this through enabling guidelines of energy efficiency and environmental norms for production plants.

While our philosophy of business growth does not hinge on government policies or programs, as we are constantly walking into customer plants, we can only wish that Make in India enables our clients to expand rapidly and that will have a cascading effect on our business. From an operational perspective, the implementation of GST and Infrastructure investments will make our cost and ease of doing business in India easier.

An area that can receive more thrust from such national programs is to focus on creating collaborative platforms for innovation, research and development among paper industry, academia, and technology suppliers. These platforms can focus on three major issues of the paper industry- Energy, Environment, and Raw materials. We are very open to participating in active collaborative networks to help the paper industry become more sustainable.

Reference – Papermart.in – 15 May 2015