5th Cluster Coordination Committee meeting

5^th Cluster Coordination Committee meeting

Date: 20^th April 2011

Venue: Hotel Shivalik View, Chandigarh

Mr Girish Sethi, Director IEE, TERI, New Delhi, thanked the industry members and the office bearers of local associations for their continuing support towards the project. He pointed out that the project is in its last phase ending in October this year, and emphasized the importance of making the project activities sustainable beyond the project term. He asked the associations to be proactive in building upon the initiatives undertaken and to play a role in crafting an exit strategy for the project.

Mr Vivek Malhotra, DGM, SIDBI, Chandigarh expressed his satisfaction at the overall progress of the project during the last year, and commended the efforts of the project team in successfully completing 48 energy audits in the cluster. He advised the project team to carry forward the activities related to skill development and lean manufacturing/vendor development in the cluster.

Mr. Upinder S. Dhingra, Research Associate, TERI described the various achievements of the project during last year and the proposed action plan for the period April 2011–October 2011.

The discussions focused on the following topics.

Skill Development

More than 140 candidates—primarily unemployed youth—have been trained in CNC machine operations and successfully placed in industrial units in the cluster during the year. Mr Dhingra outlined the initial findings of the ongoing impact assessment study on the training programmes. A major problem that the industry is facing is the high attrition rate among new candidates. In some cases, the fresh recruits did not even complete one month of service in a unit. Among the suggestions made to tackle the problem were the following:

Candidates may be asked to sign a bond that requires them to work in a particular unit for at least 2 years.
The training completion certificate of the candidate may be retained by the BDS provider till he/she completes six months of service in a particular unit.
Candidates should be trained in large numbers so that a pool of CNC machine operators is readily available for units in the cluster, allowing them to remain unaffected by attrition of new workers.

The members stressed the fact that the success of the training programmes on CNC operations hinged critically on the trainees remaining in the MPC cluster to deploy their expertise. Various options were discussed to make these training programmes sustainable in the absence of project support—for instance, industry associations could set up their own training institutes under PPP mode. Members suggested that the project team should identify more BDS providers capable of meeting the training needs of the cluster. Mr Anurag Aggarwal, Vice-President, Mohali Industries Association (MIA) expressed his interest in conducting training programmes on CNC machines in his factory premises, and said that this could be a step towards formulating a successful exit strategy of the project. He added that the project should train trainers who could in turn train candidates on operations of CNC machines in various units.

Energy Efficiency

Mr Girish Sethi advised industry members to avail of the schemes for promoting energy efficiency offered by Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) and Haryana Energy Development Agency (HAREDA).

Testing lab project

The draft proposal for setting up a ‘testing lab’ in MPC cluster has been submitted by International Business Certifications and is being internally reviewed. Mr K L Sarkar, MSME Foundation, suggested that training should be included as a component of the testing lab project. He also advised the project team to expedite the process of creating a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), which would present the DPR to the MoMSME for funding. The industry members agreed with this suggestion and offered their participation in the proposed SPV.

Awareness generation

The members observed that the project has generated a lot of awareness among entrepreneurs, BDS providers and other stakeholders in the cluster on issues of mutual interest. Mr Vishnu Goel, Chairperson, Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industries, specifically referred to the numerous workshops organized by the project which have had tremendous impact on the manufacturers of the region and led to the creation of an SPV in Panchkula to avail various government schemes for the benefit of MSMEs. Mr Arun Mahajan, President, Industries Association of Chandigarh (IAC), sought the project’s support for the golden jubilee celebrations of IAC to be held in October, 2011. He described how the association is planning a mega event that will also include technical seminars.

BDS providers’ association

The members suggested that the BDS providers identified by the project should be persuaded to register with local industry associations so that they could remain in touch with the MSMEs of the region even after the project ends. The project team acknowledged this suggestion and added that a separate association of BDS providers will be created under the project during the coming months.

The proposed action plan was duly approved by all the members.

List of participants

Mr Vivek Malhotra, Deputy General Manager, SIDBI, Chandigarh

Prof. P. Thareja, Head Metallurgical Engineering Department, PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh

Dr Gunmala Suri, Reader, University Business School, Punjab University, Chandigarh

Mr K L Sarkar, MSME Foundation, New Delhi

Mr K S Mahal, President, Mohali Industries Association, Mohali

Mr Anurag Aggarwal, Vice-President, Mohali Industries Association, Mohali

Mr Vishnu Goel, Chairperson, Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Panchkula

Mr Bhushan Kumar, Finance Secretary, Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Panchkula

Mr Arun Mahajan, President, Industries Association of Chandigarh

Mr Y.K Mahajan, General Secretary, Industries Association of Chandigarh