A four-day business exposition, MAHATech 2011, was inaugurated in Pune on December 1. With more than 250 participants and the expectation of up to 40,000 business visitors, the event was formally declared open by Panditrao Kulkarni, Chairman, Fuel Instruments & Engineers Pvt Ltd (FIE), Ichalkararanji and R K Srivastava, Director, Kirloskar Brothers Limited. On display are the latest products, machinery, equipment and developments in the Indian industry in the sectors of process industry equipments, electrical and electronics, engineering and machine tools, and technical services and consultancy.

At the inauguration, Kulkarni of FIE highlighted the need to upgrade technology in our country. "The production costs in India are extremely high which result in high cost of products," he said, citing the example of the Camry car, which costs around Rs 22 lakh in India. "The same car costs the equivalent of around Rs 10 lakh in the US. This difference is largely due to the superior technology used there," he added. He also pointed out the need for owners to be trained well. In his address, Srivastava of Kirloskar Brothers said that Pune has always contributed a lot to the field of technology and so makes for a perfect venue for such an expo. "As we have an agro-based economy in India, we should work for innovations in the field of agriculture to support and improve our agro-based economy," he said.

This is the seventh consecutive year of MAHATech and it offers opportunities to exhibitors to showcase their latest products, machinery, equipment and developments in the industry for marketing and generating business, sourcing requirements from all over India, technology adaptation and upgradation, one-to-one business meetings and networking opportunities, identifying latest market trends, locating new distributors/dealers, etc. "Like its preceding exhibitions, it will provide an insight into the shape of things to come and inspire overall industrial growth," said Vinay Marathe, Director, Maharashtra Industries Directory, organisers of the expo.

MAHATech 2011 has a repeated participation of more than 80 per cent companies and its next show will be held on from April 6 to 9 at Ahmedabad. "We are also planning to have this kind of an expo in different cities like Aurangabad, Nashik, Ahmedabad and Baroda," Marathe said. Some of the companies participating in the Pune expo include Kalyani Technologies Limited, Automatic Electric Ltd, Hegewald & Peschke (Germany), ACTA (France), Roots Multiclean Ltd, Sharon Controls (Japan), Kohler Power Systems, Kores India Ltd, PVSS Cranes Pvt Ltd, Extreme Automation, CNC Ballscrews & Bearings Pvt Ltd, Electronics Devices, etc. The expo will remain open till December 4 on the New Agriculture College Ground.