VIA MSME Forum organized a webinar on “Innovation & Opportunities in the Paper & Packaging Industry” on zoom recently.
Girish Deodhar Chairman of MSME Forum welcomed all the eminent speakers and the participants representing the paper industry. He said our relation with China is not good anymore and other countries are not also willing to do business with China.
As an initiative taken by Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi of Atmanirbha Bharat, keeping that in mind our Hon’ble Minister Nitin Gadkari promoting the ideology of Import substitute & Export-oriented products. This initiative is being promoted so that import substitute products can be made in India, Maharashtra & Vidarbha region. We had organized such similar sessions on various sectors such as Pharma, Mineral Based Industries, Food Processing, etc.
Suresh Rathi, President – VIA in his welcome address said after COVID, what are the opportunities and challenges for MSMEs, we are working in that direction. Our packaging must protect its content, its availability, ease of use & cost effective solutions. Retail chains are growing up and these retail chains will need packaging material. Protection, safety, alternative packaging etc to considered as subjects of opportunities.
Ban on single-use plastic has been imposed and EPR responsibility has been imposed. Now we should see how we can create multiple use or bio-degradable plastics. COVID has taught us that how it can affect our nature. We should try to innovate some nature-friendly options for packaging. We should also talk about the circular economy in which we should take initiative to reduce, reuse & recycle, etc. We should also explore possibilities where plastic & Paper can be combined together will help to create some good material which will help to set up industries & to create employment.
Charudatta Joglekar, Sr Paper Industry consultant shared his views about Indian Paper Industries. He said there are many types of papers that are not being manufactured in India, majorly they are imported. There is a huge requirement for filter paper which can be manufactured over here. Papers which are required in automobile, alcohol, medicine, and water, etc industries have a good scope in India to set up their manufacturing units.
India is the biggest importer of teabag filters also the cold storage papers are not being manufactured which are used in the packaging of vegetables and fruits. Similarly, the gypsum board is being utilized as cold storage paper; paper bags can be made out is this material suitable for grocery packaging. Molded paper products have huge scope in the market and it can be made from water paper pulp and it can replace plastic, another opportunity is in the field of folded boxes made out of the worst pulp, in this segment folding box cartoon & food grade paper packaging material is also a good opportunity to explore. Another papers having good scope are, Paper cooling pads which can be used in coolers & also tissue paper
Shrinivas Andhare, Consultant for paper industry explained about process automation in paper manufacturing units. He said the majority of automated paper mills use D-pulper or hicon pulper, which are being controlled by DCS or PLC. This system helps to reduce the processing time and also to remove the plastic & other material from the pulp. This system is slowly being adopted in Indian paper mills. Further, he talked about process flow automation, this methodology to reduce multiple automation on the whole process. At present new machines come with various facilities helping to improve the efficiency and financial viability of the mill. He shared many tips for improving quality of papers and also to sustain economic & technical sustainability.
Banwarilal Malu, Jt. Managing Director of Malu Paper Mill Ltd. said that – Vidarbha has issues of logistics. Big industries like Haldiram’s & Patanjali can help to grow this sector in the region. Vidarbha produces 15000-ton pulp in a month. He also mentioned that in Vidarbha region under PSI 2019, paper industries having investment upto Rs. 50Cr in fixed assets is entitled for subsidy upto 80% of the said investment. The Agro packaging sector is a very big opportunity. Now post COVID, the print media segment is growing again. Support from the product packaging industry can help to strengthen the Paper Mill & other related industries in this region said Banvarilal Malu.
Dilip Andhare, in his concluding remarks appreciated the insights shared by eminent speakers. He said they have shared information which is suitable for industries of the MSME segment where they can manufacture import substitute & export oriented products. Speaker also shared information about innovative paper-based products that can be made here in our country. We feel the Vidarbha region has good scope for the Paper & Paper-based product industry. He also proposed a formal vote of thanks.
All the three faculties formally introduced by CA Nitin Alshi
Program was largely attended by representatives from Paper, Plastics  & Packaging industries.
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