SOUTH INDIAN INDUSTRY – INSTITUTE MEET -2020

“SOUTH INDIAN INDUSTRY – INSTITUTE MEET -2020”
Friday 17th January, 2020
IPIRTI Golden Jubilee Hall, Bengaluru
Indian Plywood Industries Research & Training Institute (IPIRTI)
& South Indian Plywood Manufacturers Association (SIPMA)

Dr. M.P. Singh IFS director IPIRTI extended a warm welcome.

In his welcome address he stressed the important of such meet and opion that its time for the industries IPIRTI /FRI and IWST to jointly explore the possibility of utilizing timber species of short rotation/fast growing.

He also informed that the institute is planning to start B.TECH and M. TECH graduation course in Wood Science and Technology with the Manipal Institute of Technology .

Apart from this he emphasized the need on striving for conservation of forest and bio diversity conservation which will not only help the ecology but will help the industry and reduce the drain on foreign exchange duty imports.

Dr. Prashanth, 1st Vice President, SIPMA emphasized the importance of creating a common platform where industries IPIRTI /FRI and IWST can work together. He emphasized the information about the standard trademarks being followed in Vietnam and US regading the certification of (CARB) p2 standard and toxic substance Control Act (TSCA) in US
Siraj Asger Ali ,on behalf of SIPMA spoke on the purpose of the meet and informed the members about SIPMA which is oldest in the country and its role and informed the house about the role of SIPMA in starting and managing the IPIRTI until the institute was take over by the Government.

He requested Director IPIRTI to reformulate the fees structure for testing and sponsored projects so that the industry can make better use of the facility available at the IPIRTI .

He then highlighted the fact that inspite of the directions by the Hon Supreme Court of India in 2002 and amendment to the Forest Act ,the Karnataka Forest Department is yet in the process of issuing licenses to the wood based industries in the state of Karnataka .

He informed that the delay was due to improper directions and implementations of the law by the officers at the lower level who are licensing authorities and sought that a time bound direction needs to be given by the department to the concerned officers to ensure that eligible industries are issued licenses based on seniority.

Guest of Honor Dr. Vinay Kumar, IFS ,CCF briefed on the climate change affects which is life threatening due to carbon emission .

He informed need to focus on growing more wood and use of wood and informed the house of the various schemes the forest department has undertaken to encourage farmers to grow more trees outside forest area and informed of the increase in the forest cover area in the State.

Chief Guest Shri. Ajai Mishra, IFS, PCCF (Development), Govt. of Karnataka, Department of Forest, Bengaluru thanked IPIRTI for the privilege given to him to be the chief guest and stressed on the need of various stake holder forest department, research institute and farmers to meet more often.

He spoke about the history of plywood and expressed that hard wood and softwood categorization is very essential in making quality products.

He spoke on the history of the IPIRTI and informed of the diversified activity of IPIRTI on bamboo and other agro forest residues.

He appreciated the technological development education, training ,testing and other activities of IPIRTI. He also emphasized on the need for the industry research institute and others to work on other species of timber to increase the agro forestry and extended the department support for agro forestry and farm forestry.

Dr Manoj Kumar Dubey, Joint director IPIRTI spoke on technological activities of the institute followed by Shri. Shakthi Singh Chauhan, Scientist, IWST and Dr. D.P. Khali, Sr. Scientist, FRI.

Mr. Anand Nandanwar, Scientist, IPIRTI made a presentation on “IPIRTI’S Role in Standardization.

Mr. Mayan from M/s Western India plywoods, Mr. Victor Xavier from M/s. Green Panels; Mr. Amit Arora from M/s. Fusion Group, Mr. Vaidyanath Hariharan, Wood Technologist Association (WTA) also spoke.

Mrs Sujatha D Scientist, IPIRTI, conveyed the vote of thanks to one and all specially to the Bangalore Plywood Manufacturers Association.

Mr Subhash Chandra Jolly, President – WTA, spoke in detail about the contribution of plywood sector to the ‘Green Cover’ of our country, as well as the relevance of introducing Transport Subsidy in the sector, so that all parts of the country may benefit from pricing of timber and raw materials.

Vaidyanathan, WTA Executive member from Bengaluru, spoke about the relevance of introducing No Added Formaldehyde (NAF) glue technologies in India and its possible contribution to doubling exports from the plywood sector, and also the role of India’s youth in evolving advanced technologies.

Mr Sunil Srivastava, another esteemed WTA Executive member spoke about the importance of precision machinery in improving quality and consistency of plywood products, and also promised to contribute two state-of-the-art calibrator machines to IPIRTI and FRI each, in order to help students get hands on experience on advanced finishing machinery.

WTA also brought to notice the fact that India has the highest number of young owners, young ownership successors and young entrepreneurs in the wood and panels sector, which provides a great opportunity to advance the industry into a more export-oriented sector, this contributing immensely to our country’s foreign exchange earnings.