In the context of the growing economy, sustainable development is a prerequisite. Chemicals being indispensable, India needs to take big leaps forward, from the current 3% to at least 5-6 % global industry share. To achieve this, the zero defect zero effect model signifying products with no defect and production process with no adverse effect is the future of chemistry, said Shri D V Sadananda Gowda, Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India.
Addressing the 2nd edition of Indian Chemicals and Petrochemicals Conference (ICPC 2019) organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers said, Government’s focus is on strengthening the sector by supporting Industry with development/adoption of new technologies and techniques. Looking at the future, the industry needs to focus on high potential areas like agro-chemicals where India is the 4th largest in the world and speciality chemicals.
Minister also assured industry members that Government is actively working towards further improving the investment and business climate in the country and also India’s rank in ease of doing business. Speaking at the ICPC 2019, the Chemicals and Petrochemicals Secretary Shri Raghavendra Rao emphasised on increasing the contribution of the Chemicals sector to 25% of the manufacturing sector GDP. He added that to boost production of chemicals, reduce imports and to make India a Chemical manufacturing hub, Government is focusing on strengthening the clusters, chemical regulations, partnering with academia and industry for skilling and preparing a dashboard for monitoring the entire chemical industry activities.
Shri Sudhanshu Pandey, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce in his Special Address mentioned that at a time when India aspires to be a 5 trillion USD economy, the chemical sector is already a 5 trillion USD industry globally. At present, India’s imports are higher than its exports in chemicals. New markets are being explored to reverse the situation, Mr Pandey said.
Prof Dr R A Mashelkar, F.R.S. National Research Professor, cited the five trends that have changed the industry dramatically including the shifts of supply chain, rising sense of nationalism, accelerating commoditisation, business integration and the rapid changes in the chemical industry. He emphasised on digitisation, decarbonisation and de-centralisation as the key areas to be focused for the future.
Mr R Mukundan, Managing Director & CEO, Tata Chemicals emphasised on the inter-sectional chemistry as the future of chemistry, for which the key requirements for the sector are technology, more in terms of industry 4.0, intelligent, modular, additive and predictive systems, more connected and sustainable systems in order to make the desired impact. Other than technology, improving safety standards, stronger R&D with more incentives and partnership between industry and academia, reinstating 200% weighted tax deduction on R & D, open trade agreements have more significance for sustainability in the sector, he said.
Mr Ashish Bharat Ram, Chairman, CII National Committee on Chemicals & Petrochemicals and Managing Director, SRF Ltd invited government’s attention towards (i) procedural issues related to environmental compliance (ii) transportation infrastructure (iii) making PCPIRs autonomous bodies and (iv) working on different trade policies in order to focus adequately on Make in India arrangements. Sharing industry engagements in the Chemical sector, he said, CII has been working with DPIIT and Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals by setting up a Joint Taskforce on Chemicals in order to frame a Roadmap for the sector to contribute towards the $1 trillion manufacturing target and the country’s 5 trillion GDP target.
27 August 2018
New Delhi