Bangalore, December 11, 2014: Emphasizing on the 'Make in India' campaign, Mr Amitabh Kant, Chairman, Central Boiler Board and Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion said that the Boiler industry has to play a critical role in the growth of manufacturing and creation of jobs. He emphasized that the key industry segments like power, cement, heavy engineering, textiles are significantly affected by the efficiency of boiler industry. He appealed to Indian boiler industry to gear-up to become cost competitive and efficient to face the global competition. Investment in R&D and design is the key to build competitiveness. Mr Kant assured DIPP's full support in terms of providing an enabling policy and regulatory environment to boiler industry in the country. In this respect, government has already undertaken initiatives such as self-certification and third party inspection, he added.

Introducing the theme of the Seminar of bringing competitiveness, Mr Pravin Karve, Executive Vice President-Boilers & Heater, Thermax India, highlighted cost, delivery and quality as three key important parameters for the Indian boiler industry to focus on to build competitiveness. He opined that industry needs to eliminate time-delays in delivery and develop inbuilt quality checks at every step to reduce cost and build competitiveness.

Mr Mark E Sheehan, MD, Development (S&C), SD & T-Development, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), said that ASME's third largest membership comes from India after US and Canada. He announced that the first meeting of the working group formed by ASME scheduled for tomorrow is for sharing the experiences which is a major step for upgrading of Indian boilers industry to international standards.

Lending his views on time delays, Mr A K Jha, Director, NTPC, stated that problem lies in the procurement of raw materials. He stated that NTPC is trying to improve its efficiency in standards/specifications. He urged boiler industry to design and manufacture boilers that can cope-up with load-fluctuation as well as blending of coal with different calorific value.

The seminar provided the platform to deliberate on conducive policy framework of Indian boiler regulations which is aligned with international codes, enhancing competitiveness, capability, capacity, achieving operational expertise and new material.