The presence of leading companies like Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Nestle, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Hero Honda and Ashok Leyland, which have set up manufacturing units in Uttarakhand, is offering new opportunities for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), according to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Realising the immense potential, CII has launched an initiative to provide a platform which can help MSMEs look for new opportunities like the supply of components and provision of services like transport and logistics.
The recent three-day expo at the Haridwar industrial estate, jointly organised by CII and the state government, was an effort in this direction. It also ensured a dialogue between manufacturers, service providers and end-users, setting the stage for further industrial growth in the hill state.
More of such expos are in the offing. “We are planning to organise at least one such expo every year. The next time, we are planning to move to the Pantnagar industrial estate, which is a hub of big companies like Nestle, Britannia and Dabur,” said Vibha Malhotra, head of policy at the CII Northern Region here.
After the Centre announced a concessional industrial package for Uttarakhand in 2003, comprising tax sops and other benefits, the state government established several modern industrial estates where companies set up shop. In the next few years, over 2,446 new units entailing an investment of over Rs 29,000 crores were established.
CII roped in businessmen from various states to showcase the potential of the Haridwar industrial estate. The key highlight of the expo was the vendor development programme and procurement system, specially designed to promote intra-industry trade, healthy business relationships, outsourcing of MSME products and components, and the adoption of best practices, in order to avail of collective bargaining for common benefits from governments, public sector enterprises (PSEs) and industry.
A Sanyal, a senior deputy general manager at BHEL, said the company was looking for vendors to supply various components.
“The Indian auto component industry is expected to grow over four-fold to $113 billion by 2020, according to the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (Acma). The industry is highly fragmented and we expect that such industrial expos will create a platform to boost this industry by providing meaningful opportunities and an interactive platform for MSMEs,” said S P Chowdhary, an official of Shivam Autotech, Haridwar.
Narinder Bhambra, president of the All Indian Fasteners Association, said he had fruitful talks with officials of Tata Motors and Sterlite Technologies, and hoped that something meaningful would come of it.
