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President Pranab Mukherjee today expressed optimism that the Indian chemical industry would achieve an annual growth rate of 15 per cent and enhance its usefulness in different areas.
"The Indian chemical industry, at $108 billion, is three per cent of the global market. There is every reason, this share can rise. This sector can clock an annual growth rate of 15 per cent to become a $290 billion industry by 2017," he said, after inaugurating the 66th annual session of Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers.
In order to achieve this target, a roadmap that takes into account all growth-inducing aspects like research and development, and enhanced capacity building of workers needs to be prepared, he said.
Noting that the research and development expenditure of the chemical industry is less than 0.5 per cent of its revenue, he said a significant scale-up in spending to the global benchmark of four per cent is necessary.
"The expansion envisaged in chemical industry also underlines the need to make available an additional five million skilled professionals by 2017," he said.
Technical institutes must be strengthened for meeting manpower requirements and infrastructure support to units and the petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals regions must be leveraged, he said.
Along with growth, the chemical industry must give equal emphasis to the adherence of safety, health and environment standards, the President said.
"The industry must promote sustainable development by investing in technologies that safeguard the environment while stimulating growth," he said.
The chemical industry has played a vital role in the growth of Indian agriculture sector with the use of fertiliser and pesticides, demonstrating the capability to enhance farm yield and production, he said.
