The Centre has asked the industry to avail of the benefits of the recently launched Capital Goods Scheme which would help in acquiring or developing new technology. Speaking at the inauguration of a workshop in Mumbai today, Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Shri Anant Geete expressed concern over increasing imports of Capital Goods. He said the technology gap between the developed countries and developing countries is widening in the Capital Goods Sector. The workshop on “Technology Development for Capital Goods: Constraints and the Way Forward,” was jointly organized by the Department of Heavy Industries and FICCI.

The Minister said “the technological capabilities of large number of players, especially in the SME sector, are limited in India and as a result India has become one of the largest importers of capital goods in the world. This has adversely affected the indigenous capital goods industry and we want to change this now” he added.

Shri Geete informed that his Ministry is committed to bring ‘Achche Din’ for the Capital Goods Sector and informed that his Department would set up Technology Adoption Fund to promote Research and Development in the industrial sector.

The Capital Goods Scheme launched under the Make in India initiative of Government of India provides support to the industry to acquire technology, set-up technology development centres in collaboration with Institutes, and create common infrastructure for the capital goods industry. A unique component of the scheme is technology acquisition fund where government is giving support upto 25 per cent of the cost of technology subject to the limit of Rs. 10 crore.

The Capital Goods Scheme is expected to be particularly helpful for the industry in Maharashtra as a large number engineering and capital goods clusters covering textiles machinery, machine tools, plastic machinery and engineering products are located in the state.

Shri Divakar Raote, Maharashtra Minister for Transport, Dr. Rajan S. Katoch, Secretary, Department of Heavy Industries, were also present on the occasion.

FICCI in association with Quality Council of India (QCI) has started a series of workshops directed at creating awareness about the ZED (Zero Defect, Zero Effect) Maturity Assessment Model. This initiative is intended to give a major fillip to Prime Minister Modi’s vision to manufacture products with “zero defect” in terms of quality and with “zero effect” in terms of environmental impact under the ‘Make in India’ umbrella. ZED represents a model with the ability to holistically change the concept of quality from a tool for compliance to a source of competitiveness. Operationally it is meant to evolve from a total dependency on inspection of the final product to correct defect, to a proactive process of enablers of quality like quality planning, product and process designing, optimum processes, efficient resource management, effective outsources activities and breakthrough outcomes, thereby, improving productivity.

The model equally emphasizes elimination of impacts on environment through adequate planning at product and process design, pre-production (startup activities), production and maintenance activities, post production (disposal after use) and outcome of environment performance. The scope of the Model spans across all sectors of manufacturing and service industry with a special focus on SMEs. It reflects a mechanism that will provide the Indian SMEs with a roadmap to improve from one level to the higher one along with handholding from consultants/e-learning courses and providing other infrastructure requisite to make the enterprises more competitive globally. The ZED Rating is poised to emerge as a credible recognition of the domestic industry for International Customers and Foreign Direct Investors seeking investments in India. ZED is further likely to be made as a benchmark for suppliers to PSUs and Defence Offsets. Mr. M. M. Singh, Chairman, FICCI Manufacturing Committee and Executive Advisor, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, emphasized ZED’s significance by saying “ZED is not a philosophy. It’s a commitment”.