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The Plastindia Foundation, apex body of the plastic industry in India, will organise the eighth international plastics exhibition and conference in New Delhi from February 1 to 6, 2012.
The proposed investment of Rs 1.5 lakh crore ($37 billion) in upstream industry to set up 11 petrochemical complexes in India is expected to provide impetus for growth of polymer consumption to 15 million tonnes by 2015, Mr Ashok Goel, President, Plastindia Foundation, said here.
The last triennial exhibition, PlastIndia 2009, was attended by 1,500 exhibitors, including around 500 from 35 countries.
The foundation plans to set up a knowledge centre at Vapi, Gujarat, with a pool of plastics and polymer engineering graduates. It has also taken up two projects in Maharashtra to encourage farmers to adopt modern irrigation methods to help them increase yield and conserve water.
Plastindia over the years has grown to become the second largest plastics fair in the world, attracting participants from around 40 countries. The exhibition is organised by people from the industry voluntarily as they have a feeling of ownership towards the brand, Plastindia, he said.
The Indian plastics industry, he said, has seen a consistent growth of over 15 per cent over the past five years, and the per-person consumption has doubled over the last four years to eight kg in 2010. This is expected to increase to 10 kg by 2012 and to be on par with the global consumption, 27 kg, by 2020 because of the increasing consumption across sectors like packaging, infrastructure, agriculture, automotives, healthcare and FMCG.
In agriculture alone, around 17 million hectares are to be brought under drip irrigation according to the Union Ministry of Agriculture over the next three-four years. This leads to a tremendous potential for use of plastics in irrigation and plastic pipes, Mr Goel said.
Mr Raj Kumar Lohia, Chairman, National Executive Committee, PLASTINDIA 2012, said the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Government of India, is supporting the event for the first time.
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