Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Swadeshi Industrial Fair begins in Coimbatoire on Friday

Shobha Warrier in Madras

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will inaugurate the Swadeshi Industrial Fair, organised by the Swadeshi Jaagran Manch, at the CODISSA Trade Fair Complex in Coimbatore on February 16. The fair will be open till February 21.

Union ministers Murasoli Maran, George Fernandes, Pramod Mahajan, Sharad Yadav, Kashiram Rana, T R Balu and Murli Manohar Joshi are expected to attend the fair. The fair has been organised by the SJM though its unit, the Centre for Bharatiya Janata Party Marketing Development (CBMD), and the Coimbatore District Small Scale Industries Association (CODISSA).

"When the first SJM-organised trade fair was opened in January, 1999, everybody predicted that we would fail. We did not. In fact, we have gone on to organise 10 fairs in the next two years, bringing all the industrial groups under one umbrella -- swadeshi," S Gurumurthy, the convener of the SJM said.

The SJM has organised trade fairs at Bangalore, Hyderbad, Shimla, Jodhpur, Nagpur, Visakhapatnam, Varanasi and Lucknow.

The Coimbatore fair is the 11th of its kind, where Indian industries ranging from Maruti to the masala-maker from Salem to the knitwear manufacturer from Tirupur will assemble and display their products at the 800 stalls at the trade complex.

The CBMD expects nearly 1.2 million people to attend the fair.

"The Swadeshi fair exclusively brings together and promotes swadeshi industries and business, owned and controlled by Indians and people of Indian origin," said an organiser.

"Another feature is the way the fair tries to integrate an entire range of business regardless of size (big, medium and small) and ownership (public, private, corporate and family owned)," he said.

Both traditional and modern find a place at the fair. No MNCs -- for obvious reasons -- are allowed to participate.

"From 1991-92, many accused us of taking India back to the bullock-cart age when we talked about swadeshi. But from 1995, we find a sea change in the attitude of Indian industrialists and economists. Many thought socialism and swadeshi are the same. Now, many see a lot of sense in what we say. The idea of swadeshi is no more about an autonomous village economy alone. It is about the vibrant national economy. We cannot accept foreigners controlling our economy," Gurumurthy remarked.

The industries cover various sectors -- engineering, infrastructure, electronics and defence production, chemicals, garments, powerloom, petroleum and petroleum products, agriculture and food processing, jewellery, handicrafts, automobile, telecommunication, tourism, leather, construction, healthcare, media, science and technology, textiles, match industries, transport, poultry, handloom, knitwear, consumer durables and printing.

"Also participating are the small- and medium-sized industries that depend purely on traditional skills and have withstood the onslaught of globalisation. Policy-makers, senior bureaucrats from the central and state governments, too, would attend" said the CBMD.

Gurumurthy cited the example of Tirupur, a small town in Tamil Nadu, now known to the world as the 'knitwear centre.' There are around 3,000 small and big knitwear units in Tirupur, many of them owned by those who earlier worked as labourers in the bigger units. There are no MNCs or big mills in Tirupur. Last year knitwear export from Tirupur was to the tune of Rs 55 billion.

The fair will have a 'Hall of Information' -- which will highlight the problems of, challenges to and opportunities for Indian Industries.

There will be seminars on various issues during the time the fair is on. "Through the fair, we want to spread the message that we have to preserve the Indian-ness in our industry," said Gurumurthy.

Money

Business News

Tell us what you think of this report