| The Govt. of India, Ministry of MSME initiated
the Cluster Development Programme in the year 2003.04. While
undertaking the cluster development activities a country wide
survey of Clusters was undertaken by the DC(MSME),New Delhi
and 358 SSI clusters were identified. In the Ist phase of Small
Industries Cluster Development Programme in the year 2003-04,
the development of 20 clusters in different States were initiated
by the Development Commissioner, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises,
New Delhi.
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Institute,
Karnal was assigned the job of Cluster Development for Rice
Milling industry of district Karnal. As per the plan the development
was undertaken in the areas of Technology Up gradation, Market
Development and the capacity building. The programme started
with the preparation of Diagnostic Study Report which was
duly validated by the industry, associations and the cluster
actors. The programme was meant for a period of three years
i.e. w.e.f. the year 2004-05 to 2006-07.
The major problems identified in the clusters were related
to technology up gradation, lack of management skills, training
and market development requirements, lack of finance and Business
Development Services etc. In view of above, the requirement
of industry and the cluster’s vision various technology
seminars, workshops, BDS Services, Energy Audits, Quality
Awareness Programmes, Market Development / E-Business Programmes,
participation in fairs, Exposure visit of Rice Millers to
Internationally advanced rice milling clusters- China and
Thailand and capacity building programmes and meets etc. were
undertaken. Therefore, tangible improvements were undertaken
in the cluster in the above areas. The feed back on the status
of improvement in the different years of working in the project
was reported as below: |
| Some of the major achievements made in
the cluster are as below:
i) Standardisation and improvement in rice milling processes
including Drying, Milling, Parboiling, Steaming, Polishing,
Storage and Preservation etc.
ii) Reduction in Rice Broken level during Milling operations
upto 5% in raw rice and 5% in Parboiled rice.
iii) Savings due to rice broken reduction –Rs. 1.5 Crore
cumulative.
iv) Investment in machinery made by Rice Millers for Rice
Milling processes improvement and Technology Upgradation-
Rs. 5 Crore cumulative.
v) Carried out Energy Audits in 13 Rice Mills.
vi) Investment made for Energy Conservation purpose-Rs. 75
lakhs cumulative.
vii) Amount of Energy saved due to implementation of Energy
Conservation recommendations-Rs.1.5 crore cumulative.
viii) No. of Quality Control Labs established by the units-
4 Nos.
ix) No. of persons improved Skills in Technology Upgradation
and other processes- 800 Nos.
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