Twelfth Five-Year Plan: IPMA collaborates with Planning Commission for formulation of sector-specific proposals

The Planning Commission of India has constituted a Steering Committee on Industry to draft industries’ related proposals for the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017). The clarion call for the next Twelfth Five Year Plan is “faster, more inclusive and sustainable economic growth” with the following development goals:

• To increase manufacturing growth by 2 to 4 % more than GDP growth to make it the engine of growth for the economy
• To increase share of manufacturing from 15% to 25% of overall GDP by 2025
• To increase the rate of job creation in manufacturing to create around 100 million additional jobs by 2025

 Under the Steering Committee (Industry) chaired by  Mr. Arun Maira, Member- Planning Commission, a sector specific Working Group for Pulp & Paper has been formed under the chairmanship of Secretary (DOIPP) to craft suitable Terms Of Reference (TOR) taking into account the following:

• The long term goals to be achieved in respect of the sector.
• The current status of the sector together with problems and focus areas that need to be addressed in order to achieve targets.
• Strategies for achieving the goals as indicated in the item 1 above.
• The critical milestones to be achieved within 12th Plan period for attainment of the long term goals.
• Recommendations on programmes / schemes / measures that are to get initiated, continued or discontinued in the 12th Plan period giving the broad budgetary estimates, if any.

On the advice of the Chairman of the Working Group, sub-committees were constituted to go into specifics headed by the following:

• Mr Madhukar Mishra, IPMA   : HRD
• Mr R .R. Vederah, IPMA           : Technology, Energy & Environment
• Dr. P. J. Dalip Kumar, MoEF     : Raw Materials

On its part, IPMA has flagged the following four huge constraints impacting the growth of the industry:

• Non-allocation of degraded land on lease for creation of raw material base and thereby losing out on cost competitiveness to global majors
• High cost of Power/ Energy, low quality, lower allocation & erratic supply of fossil fuel
• Absence of Technology Upgradation Fund and high cost of finance.
• Shortage of skilled manpower

Further, IPMA has drawn Planning Commission’s attention to the following road-blocks being faced by the paper sector:

• Multiple agencies within Govt.
• Differences in requirements of different segments of the Industry
• Delay in implementation of policies in view of resistance from other stakeholders - NGOs/Unions/Local opinion leaders etc

           
In a meeting of the working Group on Pulp and Paper Sector held on August 29, 2011 under the chairmanship of Mr. R. P. Singh, Secretary (DOIPP), the chairpersons of respective sub committees made a presentation on recommendations. Here follows a summary of suggestions made by the Chairman of the Working Group on different recommendations:

Wood

• Take up the reforestation work of the degraded forest land with the involvement of Forest Development Corporations (FDCs) which could involve Paper Industry through an acceptable mechanism as per the existing Forest Policy. Following modalities were suggested:
• FDCs can plant trees on their own. They can raise finance from banks/ financial institutions against a guarantee from Paper Mills to buy the produce at a specified price
• FDCs can engage the Paper Mills through a mutually agreed arrangement which enables the mills to undertake the entire activity including arranging finances

• Submit a detailed working model for the above suggested mechanism (since submitted by IPMA )

Social Forestry

• Adopt model prevalent in sugar sector. The bank loans for social forestry are drawn by the industry, which is also responsible for repayment of loans. At the end of the term farmers are paid as per the volume/ weight of the produce after deducting the advances paid.

Bagasse

• Hold another round of talks with representatives of Sugar Board/ Indian Sugar Mills Association/ Ministry of New & Renewable Energy to reach some kind of consensus on bagasse usage. At present sugar mills use 80% of the bagasse generated as source of energy leaving little for the paper industry.

Residual  Wheat  Straw

• Carry out a field demonstration project for the benefit of farmers since a large quantity of wheat straw is left on the felds during harvesting process

Rice  Straw

• Identify mills who could work with CPPRI to scale up the technology. CPPRI has already set up demonstration plant for use of rice straw as raw material in Andhra Pradesh

Recycled  Fibre

• Come out with a workable model in association with Municipalities in order to improve the recovery of waste paper

• Submit the details of prevailing practices in other countries on the issue of waste paper before further action is contemplated for not treating waste paper as hazardous waste.   

Technology  Modernisation

• Present a concrete proposal justifying demand for government support for technology modernization.

• Consider Private equity, FDI etc to set up global scale plants.

Environment

• Hold meeting with representatives of Ministry of Environment & Forests regarding simplification of environmental clearances which cause delay in project implementation

• Present data on practices adopted in advanced countries on the issue

Common ETP/ Recovery for Agro/RCF Mills

• Set up common ETP/ Recovery facilities for units located in clusters

Water Conservation

• Invite representatives of MoEF to discuss the issue of making pollution discharge norms as ‘load’ based and not ‘concentration’ based so that mills have motivation to conserve water

Coal

• Take up with concerned ministries the request for coal blocks in cluster mode and preference for allocation of gas etc.  Govt has in principle decided that all users will pay the same price. 

Fiscal Incentives

• Submit a consolidated proposal on fiscal incentives

 
Human Resource Development

Regarding HRD, the recommendations and proposals of the subcommittee were accepted in principle. The following milestones were proposed to be achieved based on recommendations of the subcommittee:

• Creation of infrastructure of ITIs (56 numbers) near the clusters of pulp and paper mills for starting a certificate course in pulp & paper

• Upgradation of capabilities of 8 existing institutions in respect of revision of courses

• Strengthening of CPPRI capabilities in the area of HR & Training

(The proposals are under submission by the Chairman of the Working Group to the Chairman of the Steering Committee (Industry) of the Planning Commission)

IPMA to host next ICFPA Annual Meeting in May 2012

In recognition of growing importance and growth of India’s paper sector, the International Council of Forests & Paper Associations (ICFPA) has decided to hold its next Annual Meeting in India and so also, the UNFAO’s Advisory Committee on Paper and Wood Products (ACPWP) about their 53rd Session. IPMA will be playing the host for both these high-profile international events which are scheduled to take place on May 23-24, 2012.
Being an active member IPMA participated in the 52nd Session of the ACPWP held in Montebello, Canada from May 23-25, 2011 in conjunction with the annual meeting of ICFPA; participants from around 40 member countries participated in wide ranging deliberations and submitted their country reports. IPMA was represented by Secretary General. 

The three day deliberations at Montebello took into account and addressed certain critical issues viz. (a) what are the obstacles and strategies facing the forest–industries in the global move to low–carbon economies, (b) what can forest industry (wood, pulp, paper) do better to become more successful in its image renewal with the civil society, (c) what can emerging countries do to bridge the gaps and avoid the pitfalls on their path to sustainable forest industries, and (d) what are the innovation trajectories, new business models and partnerships that will help turn forest industry into a green economy giant?

Editor: R Narayan Moorthy     
Secretary General
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