Mr. Suresh Kalmadi Speaking At The Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony Invites the World To Visit India For the 2010 Edition of Commonwealth Games
Shri Suresh Kalmadi, MP, Chairman Pune Vyaspeeth, Shri Ashok Chavan Hon Minister for Industries GOM, Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh, Hon Chief Minister Maharashtra, Dr R A Mashelkar, Dir CSIR, Ms Rajni Tribhuvan, Hon Mayor Pune at Inauguration
Symantec India recently inaugurated its Global Security Response (GSR) lab at its centre of innovation in Pune. This lab will provide real-time monitoring and response to threats world-wide. The eighth of its kind in world and the first in India, the lab will protect the company's global customers from a variety of security threats. Vincent Weafer, Senior Director- Development, Symantec Security Response; Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, Symantec India and Anil Chakravarthy, Vice President-India Technical Operations, Symantec Corporation were present at the occasion.
Chennai- based Hydro S&S Industries, part of W S Industries group and a major producer of specialised reinforced polypropylene compounds for automotive, appliance and furniture segments, is setting up a new manufacturing facility in Pune.
The new facility with an initial capacity of 6000 tonnes per annum and expected to cost around Rs 6 to 8 crore, will become operational by March 2008. Currently, it has two compounding facilities at Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry with a processing capability of about 18,000 tonnes per annum.
Murali Venkatraman, Vice-Chairman and MD, W S Industries said the third facility at Pune is being created to handle the increasing requirements of automobile OEMs. It is in line with the expansion of General Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra and the re-entry of Fiat and the new project of Volkswagen in the vicinity of Pune.
REINFORCING Pune's reputation as a hub for back-end operations, VSNL on Monday went live with their global delivery centre at what is considered to be the country's first IT-specific special economic zone (SEZ) at Kharadi.
"The centre will cover our international footprint and allow us to handle a major component of our back-end operations for our international network support. With this centre, we will be entering the new area of business process outsourcing (BPO). Besides this, the facility will also include network engineering and design," VSNL International chief technology officer John Hayduk said.
Where IT meets BT
Hi-Tech Pune - Maharashtra has played a key role in promoting the Information Technology & Biotechnology potential of Pune & other districts of Maharashtra worldwide. In fact, this is the only event of its kind in India which puts Information Technology & Biotechnology on the same platform. This unique event will also provide the ideal meeting ground to transact business, build global alliance and collaborations, and showcase products and technologies. Hi- Tech Pune-Maharashtra will see 100 national and international speakers addressing an audience of thousand delegates.
The impact of past events
Established Pune as the centre of Information Technology & Biotechnology excellence
Reversed the process of brain drain to the West by concretizing innovative R&D opportunities in Pune
Paved the way for MIDC in establishing an International Airport at Pune, Maharashtra
Resulted in the earmarking of more than 100 acres of prime real estate for an exclusive Science & Technology Park in Pune
Was instrumental in the development of an exclusive and powerful BioTech Task Force by the Government of Maharashtra, led by Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Director General, CSIR
Led to the proactive use of the mass media, and Net Kiosks in Community Centres to make IT beneficial to the common man.
Delegates got the opportunity to network with global business and industry leaders, venture capitalists and policymakers
Path breaking presentations by known personalities from the field of Information Technology & Biotechnology
Exclusive contests for budding entrepreneurs
Specialized Information Technology Business Groups for conducting one-to-one meetings with fund managers and policymakers
The land commissioned for the international airport at Chakan should now be developed as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for biotechnology, MP Suresh Kalmadi said on Sunday. Kalmadi said he had already submitted a proposal to the State and the MIDC, and expected a decision within a month. ‘‘The land at Chakan is available for development and should be used for IT-BT purposes,’’ he said.
Since the IT Park at Hinjewadi was full, another IT park was being built at Wagholi, he said. ‘‘The MIDC has earmarked five acres,’’ he added.
The first international shipment was sent from Lohegaon airport to Singapore on April 14, 2005. About 2 months ago the customs commissionerate in Pune finally issued a notification allowing air cargo movement for exports on domestic scheduled flights. Discussions are being held with trade bodies like the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to encourage more players to make use of the facility.
Customs commissioner Sumit Dutt Mazumdar, while making this announcement, said this development would place Pune on the global aerial map.
As per plans, scheduled flights from Pune will transport cargo to Mumbai, from where these will be loaded on to international flights, he said.
"Considering that exports from Pune, mostly engineering goods, are up by 43 per cent in the past year, this development will not only reduce transaction costs, but will help exporters and importers from Pune and its neighbouring areas by way of transporting their material from the dry dock at Dighi to Mumbai," Mazumdar said.
Mr. Mazumdar also said that despite reduction in central excise and customs duty, the city has witnessed an increase in the revenue collection over the years.
Ascendas India Pvt Ltd, Asia’s leading total business space solution provider, plans to expand its presence in India by setting up information technology parks in Kolkata and Pune. Addressing mediapersons on the topping-out ceremony of the phase-I, International Tech Park in Chennai, Goh Kok Huat, CEO, Ascendas India, said that the next destinations will be Kolkata and Pune where the company will be looking at promoting IT parks.
Ascendas’ flagship projects in India include International Tech Park in Bangalore, Cyber Pearl and Vanenburg IT Park in Hyderabad and Infocity in Gurgaon. The company has so far built almost four million sq ft of IT space in the country.
Cedric Foo, minister of state for defence and national development, Singapore said, “It is encouraging to see Ascendas’ dedicated efforts to bring value-add to their projects in India.”
Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President & Chairman Of The CWG 2010 Organizing Committee, Mr. Suresh Kalmadi has called upon the Indian industry to become equal partners in hosting the Commonwealth Games here in 2010. Mr. Kalmadi appealed to the captains of industry to adopt various sports from the grassroots levels so that investments would bear fruit in the form of medals in international competitions.
He hoped each industry would take one sport under its wing to produce results.
"I have great hope that the industry, through the Commonwealth Games 2010 and our proposed bid for the 2014 Asian Games and the 2016 Olympics, will help create an Olympic sports culture in our country," said Kalmadi.
"I hope to touch the heart of the industry, and convince them to sponsor Olympic sports and not just cricket," he said.
Kalmadi also said he had already met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and would meet Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to ask for tax exemptions as incentives for industrial houses to get involved in sport sponsorship.
The issue of increasing the budgetary outlay for sports by at least Rs.2 billion over the next five years to meet the expenses of preparing athletes and hiring foreign coaches too was being discussed with the government, Kalmadi said.
Patni Computer Systems Ltd is planning to ramp up operations by setting up a 2,000 seater facility in Pune at an investment of Rs 100 crore. The IT services major commenced its Pune operations in 1995 and has grown to over 1,900 employees and contributed 21 per cent of the company's overall revenues in 2004. Last year, Patni added 600 employees in Pune, over one-third of which came from its Cymbal acquisition, it added.
In addition to the proposed development centre, the IT services major is also on the look out for land in the city to build a campus, it said in a release on Thursday. "For the last 10 years, we have been continuously investing in physical infrastructure, domain capabilities and new service lines in Pune to ensure consistent growth," Patni senior vice-president Vijay Khare said.
"Our Pune operations have been key to the overall company growth especially in the insurance vertical. Going forward, our Pune centre will be strategic to our overall growth," he said.
The delegation — representing about 30 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Germany — had a one-on-one meeting with their counterparts in Pune and nearby areas. This was followed by a visit to auto component major Bharat Forge in Mundhwa. The meeting had been organised by the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA).
D K Abhyankar, director general of MCCIA, said the German delegation was quite surprised to see the sheer number and dexterity of auto ancillaries in Pune.
Members of the delegation in particular took great interest in the auto component industry of Pune. The German SMEs, supplying parts to global auto majors, were keen to exploit outsourcing opportunities, said sources present at the meetings. ‘‘The delegation members were quite impressed with the forgings and machine tool at Bharat Forge,’’ added Abhyankar.
The Pune SMEs were also adequately represented, since at stake were issues such as technology transfer, besides sourcing of products and capital equipment. Exports to Germany and possibilities of joint ventures were also discussed.
Jan. 7, 2005: Deere & Company today announced that it plans to expand its operations in Pune, India, with the opening of a company-owned business processes and engineering center later this year. The facility will provide information technology and engineering support services for the company's operations worldwide. At start-up, the center will have approximately 100 employees.
Deere & Company currently has a tractor manufacturing joint venture with Larsen & Toubro Limited in Pune.
Current employees are not expected to be affected by the opening of the new center as retirements, normal attrition and expanding capacity requirements will permit a gradual ramp up of activities in Pune. Some information technology and engineering functions that are currently outsourced may be impacted as those activities are transitioned back inside the company to the Deere center in Pune.
Maharashtra has 720 km. of coastline with the continental shelf area of 111512 sq. km. There are as many as 32 inland varieties of fish produced in this state. Among these varieties, shrimps, prawns, harpodon neherias, ribbon fish, otalithes, pomfrets, anchoviella, mackeral and cattle fish put together account for over 70 per cent share in total inland fish production of Maharashtra.
Brihan Mumbai and Thane are the only two major regions of the state accounting for bulk of the total inland fish production. Though Maharashtra accounts for a significant share in total marine fish production of India, her share in total fish production of India has declined over the past two decades mainly due to a sharp decline in her share in total marine fish production of India.
The major problem faced by the marine fisheries of Maharashtra is relating to depletion of resources due to illegal presence of foreign vessels and vessels belonging to other states, which appeared to have created pressure on the coast line. As a result, the marine fish production of Maharashtra has grown at very low pace during the last two decades. In order to tackle this problem, there is need for the Government of India to introduce zonalisation of coast line in the National Fishing Policy. This will certainly help in checking the depletion of marine resources. In fact, the present fishing fleet of the state is not capable of exploiting the deep sea resources. It is to be further noted that there has been decline in inland water spread area and numerical strength of fish curing yards in the state.
The number of fishery schools in the state has also stagnated over the last two decades. These are certainly disturbing features of the fisheries sector of Maharashtra. Although in order to develop fisheries sector, the department of fisheries in the state is conducting various training programme relating to carp fish seed production, fresh water prawn culture, integrated fish farming and management of aquarium, etc., there is also need to educate fishermen with respect to dissemination of information relating to modern fishing techniques and efficient marketing of fish catch.
Equally important is the need for more innovative technologies in this sector, diffusion of developed technology by extension workers and adoption by the clients. Education of fishermen about modern fishing techniques has significant impact on adoption of recommended fish culture practices by the farmers. Further, extension and mass media participation have strong positive relationship with adoption of fish culture practices. Nonetheless, inadequate infrastructure and flow of information technology are the major barriers for better market integration in the existing marine fish markets of India.
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* Dr. Deepak Shah is a Faculty Member, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Deemed to be a University), Pune 411004 (Maharashtra), India
PUNE: Digital Maharashtra, an annual conference, exploring new opportunities in IT sector in Maharashtra, presenting its IT advantages and looking at e-governance in the state is being held in Pune on November 29, 2004.
Maharashtra has a 15 per share of the total Indian exports in the IT and ITES sector. Software and service exports from here were at $1.5 billion. With IT gaining the business maturity, the state is seeking new and innovative directions for continuing growth for the industry. The event is being organised by the CII and the Government of Maharashtra.
Ravi Venktatesan, chairman, Microsoft Corporation India, will deliver the keynote address while the inaugural address will be by Vishwas Dhumal, principal secretary-industries, government of Maharashtra.
After several rejections, the largest private sector motorcycle manufacturer in China, Chongqing Lifan Industry (Group) Company Ltd, has received the Government's permission to manufacture motorcycle engines in the country. The company came up with a modified plan, dropping many objectives from the earlier plans, and said that it would invest Rs 12 crore for manufacturing motorcycle engines. With the change in the company's plan, the Government has finally given the go-ahead to the company for setting up its plant at Pune in Maharashtra.
The Lifan group, currently, has an annual capacity of two million motorcycle engines and one million motorcycles.
At the end of 2003, the company possessed a total of 848 Chinese and overseas patents and 188 copyrights.
It has 112 registered trademarks in China and 32 registered trademarks outside China and also ranks first in the Chinese motorcycle industry in respect of self-owned intellectual property rights.
The company's products are currently sold in over 70 countries covering South-East Asia, West Asia, Europe, Africa and South America.
It was also the first Chinese motorcycle company to export motorcycles to Japan.
Though a section of officials in the Ministry of Heavy Industries are still not clear as to how a motorcycle engine manufacturing unit could be set up with such a small investment, the proposal was okayed by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) because the Ministry of External Affairs opined that they "have no objection from the political angle," sources said.
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