Technological development and R & D Key for building brand for Valves
The Indian Valves industry needs to develop strategies for meeting the evolving needs of the economy. This was stated by Mr Samir Kumar Biswas, Joint Secretary, Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Government of India, while addressing the ‘Valves Conference 2015’ organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi. He highlighted that the manufacturing sector is slated to grow significantly over the next decade and the chemical sector is aiming for double digit growth in the next 5-10 years. This requires INR 10 lakh crores of investment. Thus, the chemical sector itself would create huge demand for highly reliable, cost efficient and globally competitive valves.
Emphasizing on the need for R & D and development of new technology in the sector, Mr Biswas asked industry to work closely with the end users and forge foreign collaborations to develop new products. He informed that the Government is focusing on ease of doing business and is ready to facilitate and support industry to achieve the national goal and vision of ‘Make in India’. He also asked industry to be the part of global trade and explore ways to leverage the regional partnership with various countries.
Dr D K Nayyar, Deputy Director General, Bureau of Indian Standards, emphasized on the role of international standards and an enabling environment as well as conducive policies to address current challenges of logistics and supply chain for enhancing manufacturing capabilities and growth of Indian valves industry. He highlighted that valves are expected to be not only zero defect, but also ensure high performance. Thus, standards play a very important role in the success of the process and ensuring the necessary safety of human life. He informed that the Mechanical Engineering Division of BIS has laid 125 standards for the sector and constituted a Technical Committee for developing new standards and upgradation of existing standards. He asked the experts from industry to associate with this committee and contribute for developing standards which are internationally and widely accepted. He also asked industry members to contribute to the testing scheme introduced recently and suggest for any modification so that the certification process is made easier.
Mr K C Rout, Additional Director General, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, while highlighting the importance of global integration for Indian Valves industry, elaborated on the ways to protect domestic industry from any unfair or even fair trade practices if causing any injury. Enumerating the initiatives of BIS to facilitate industry, he asked industry to be globally competitive to achieve the ambitious industry target size of US$4 billion y by 2020.
Mr N V Venkatasubramanian, Chairman, CII Valves & Actuators Division and Chief Executive, L & T Valves Limited pointing to the chosen theme, highlighted that presently we need value added engineered valves for world markets. ‘Capacity addition in infrastructure envisaged under ‘Make In India’ campaign of Hon’ble Prime Minister is going to spur the future growth and would provide much opportunity to the downstream industries especially to the valves sector’ he added. He informed that, currently, the global valve market size is US$ 55 Billion with North America and West Europe as the largest markets. The global demand for valves is expected to grow and reach $ 60 Billion by 2017. India constitutes around 2 per cent, with Rs. 10,000-crore market size. Between FY’15 and FY’20, the Indian valve market is slated to grow at 7-8% per annum, well above the international industry average of 3-4 %. He emphasized on the need for leading valves manufacturers to come together and create synergy to work towards changing the global perception about Indian valves industry and project the brand equity of Indian valves as highly capable.
Mr Ramesh Babu, Vice Chairman, CII Valves & Actuators Division & MD, Velan Valves India Pvt. Ltd. assured the government officials for better participation in the constituted committee by BIS for aligning the standards to International standards. He also informed that the industry would work together for the Interest Equalization Policy of the government.
A white paper on ‘Indian Valves Engineered for Global Market’ was released during the Conference.
24 November 2015
New Delhi