The Hindu Business Line : ‘Machine tool sector needs stronger R&D support’

Bangalore, Jan. 8 Machine tool industry needs to be put on a stronger platform to take advantage of the vast opportunities in the emerging areas such as nuclear, defence, power, aerospace and healthcare through a comprehensive policy support to encourage research and development and investment incentives.

The industry had the potential to put Indian manufacturing sector on a different level, said Mr N.K. Dhand, President of the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association (IMTMA).

Addressing a press conference to announce the IMTEX 2009 (Indian Machine Tool Exhibition) to be held here from January 22, Mr Dhand said despite a rapid growth, the industry depended on huge imports, constituting 23 per cent of the total consumption for a country emerging as a key manufacturing hub.

He said with key sectors such as automobile making rapid strides, giving fillip to exports, the country needed larger and stronger institutional support to encourage research and development and give a boost to sophisticated machine tools to meet the industry’s needs.

Urging the Government to extend its support with investments, like it made in the Hindustan Machines Tools, that gave an impetus to growth to the machine tools sector, Mr Dhand said more R&D institutions such as the Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI) should be set up in Bangalore, Rajkot, Ludhiana and Delhi, key manufacturing centres.

Mr Shailesh Sheth, Media Chairman of IMTEX and Toolech 2009, said the economic slow down has not diminished the participation of leading foreign machine tool companies with Germany’s strong patronage for the fourth consecutive participation in the event, underlining the keen interest in the event. More than 25 countries will be participating in the eight-day meet.

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