Anna Hazare is on Fasting and Manmohan Singh & Co. are Feasting (Iftar ). History says Nero was playing Music when Rom was burning.
Governance is on hold. All ministry - Education / HRD , Telecom , Finance, Law , PMO etc. are busy on so called Lokpal Bill and work on different areas are suffering. FII, FDI, Industrial production, Employment etc. are suffering. Country is worried but not Government. One man has shaken the whole machinery.
But still no concrete action against corruption. All political parties are Chor Chor Mauserebhai.

Syed Ahmed Bukhari, Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid has again done a great disservice to Muslim community by asking Muslims to stay away from Anna stir. Is he for corruption ? Fight against corruption has nothing to do with religion. No religion, including Islam, can give a call not to fight corruption.

INDIA – DARK PRESENT BUT GLORIOUS PAST & BRIGHT FUTURE

INDIA – DARK PRESENT BUT GLORIOUS PAST & BRIGHT FUTURE

Dark Present

Looking at the present state of India, it will be difficult to convince Indian about her glorious past and awaiting bright future. Such a rotten state of affair of the country in every sphere of life make people cynic and loose faith about future , even to Almighty , if there is one. When an associate of legendary Che’ Guevara , who was a catholic priest , was asked why a man of religion like you had taken path of violence , he replied “ Had there been Jesus he would have also taken to arms. Swami Vivekananda said “ God , God who cannot give me bread in this life will give me eternal bliss in next life , I do not need such God “.

Since liberalization and globalization of economy early 1990’s by Narsimha Rao’s Government , when Dr. Manmohan Singh was at the helm of country’s finance, India has made enormous progress to improve country’s financial condition. GDP of the country has grown at the rate of 8-9% per annum, Foreign exchange reserve has gone up tremendously from a bankrupt stage in early 1990’s and India is on the path of world economic power. Industry, trades, banking all are flourishing.

But the basic social problems remain unsolved. Huge population suffering under poverty – we have coined a special term” BPL”- who do not get even two times a day food. Forget about roof on head, drinking water, any kind of medical facility, education – in single word “not a human life”. However rich are getting richer after this so called “liberalization”. We are boasting about number of Indian billionaire in Forbes list. And the “rich” have all power, they flout all rules & laws openly – police , govt , judiciary – all are subservient to these “rich” people.

With GDP & economic growth enter all related evils - Fraud & Scam, Corruption, sacrificing of Ethics in all spheres of life, sex & violence. Under the glamour of ”India,” weeping “Bharat” is suffering. All form of media is hammering relentlessly about “Consumerism” & “Materialism” and urging so-called middle class (which is estimated at 250 million by all vested interest groups ) for purchase these goods informing about availability of “hire purchase” & “credit facility”. Thus limited financial strength of such “middle class” is stretched and fund needed for more important matter like education, health etc. is put under pressure.

Morality , Ethics, Dharma are no more part of normal life. Soon these will vanish from dictionary. Scam, Fraud, Corruption are the only happenings in the country which are continuously flashed by all form of media. Seeing the magnitude of corruption our senses are becoming numb and cursing us on our helplessness. Considering the magnitude of scam & fraud (CWG - Rs.60,000 Crore , 2G / 3 G Spectrum – Rs. 1.76 Lac Crore (as per CAG report), Hassan Ali Khan Black money (tax evasion Rs.1.0 Lac Crore ) (Liechtenstein, German, Swiss Bank), Radia Tape , Bofors Scam - USD 400 million (in 1980), Madhu Koda- ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister (1800 bank account world over ), Ms. Mayawati , UP CM- USD 44 million Taj Corridor scam, Jain Hawala scandal –USD 18 million, Bellary Mines – Reddy brothers illegal iron ore mining scam, ex-Chief Justice of India, Supreme Court, Chief Justice Kolkata High Court , function of Allahabad High Court commented by Supreme Court, hattrick by consecutive three CM of Maharastra – Adarsh Scam, involvement with loan shark & clearance of P.J. Thomas – palm oil case, Lalu Prasad – Chara ghotala case, Yeddyurappa , CM Karnataka – allotment of land & property to son & relatives – list is endless. Estimate of deposits in safe heavens is alleged to be USD 1.4 Trillion.

Corruption do not stop at loot of money only. India now is witnessing not mere corruption but national plunder ( Brahma Challeny , The Hindu , 6 Dec., 2010 ). Transparency International scales India’s Corruption perception index at 3.3, measured in a scale of 0-10 (cleanest ).

Corruption has spread to every sphere of life – Police, arguably the most organized corrupt dept., is well known for inactivity for public’s matter (murder, rape, dacoity, harassment & so on ), CBI dance to the tune of masters than going seriously to punish the culprit. Even judiciary is not free from this malice – cases of immediate past Chief Justice of Supreme Court, High Court judges of Kolkata, Chandigarh, Uttara Khand, Sikkim, observation of Supreme Court about functioning of Allahabad High Court, recent judgment by Mumbai lower Court granting bail to Hassan Ali. Ray of hope – new Chief Justice of India and Supreme Court started acting on certain cases of corruption ( 2G / 3 G, CVC, Hassan Ali etc.) which otherwise would have gone under the carpet.

Major concern for the country is non-governance. It is free for all. PM does not act, neither Govt. Departments. Allover indiscipline make life of common man hell. Any group simply disrupt Rail and Road operation at will & on any pretext over many days causing serious inconvenience to public and huge loss to nation. Government does not act for long and does not take any action because of vote bank theory.

Something is rotten in our “Democracy”. Is India becoming a “Banana Republic”? Is the Government / Nation in a coma ?

Repeated remarks of Supreme Court judges in very recent past clearly indicates Govt. inaction and non-governance in all important matters.
“What the hell is going on in this country ? Why had no custodial interrogation taken place so far ( of Hassan Ali ) – Justice Sudershan B Reddy.
“Catch the big fish in the case ( 2 G ). We have a large number of persons who think that they are a law unto themselves. The 2G scam has put all other scams to shame” – Justice GS Singhvi.
There is something rotten in Allahabad High Court. Everybody knows which judge is honest and which judge is corrupt………” – Justice Markandey Katju.
“Government cannot be trusted that is why we divide its power into separate organs” – Justice Dalveer Bhandari.
“I personally believe that if you follow the constitution, you do not need to practice any religion on earth” (on PJ Thomas as the CVC) – Chief Justice SH Kapadia.

Political parties are devoid of ideology and are thoroughly corrupt. They have narrow interest of capturing power by hook & crook , misleading public to serve their purpose and fishing in troubled water. Talk of nationalism & welfare for common man is only for vote catching. Politicians have sold their soul to Mephistopheles. Equally perverted & corrupted are the religious Gurus, so called God men , who have nothing to do with “Dharma”.

Who will guide the society & people ? Who will lead the country ? Big question – no answer. It is necessary to develop Indian identity – not region, religion, cast, fragmented narrow ideology but identify as Indian first.

Even after so much talk about high GDP growth for last quite a few years and “ India Shining “, 80% of India lives on less that USD 2 / day. Nearly 100 million Indians live in slums, how many lives on road in the open – no data available. Such a wide contrast between rich & poor. On one side Hassan Ali & likes loot in lacs of Crore rupees and on the other side very large number of population do not get two meals a day. Lack of development helping Maoist growth & insurgency. Loots are linked to Terrorism, internal & external security of the nation.

When “ Satyam “ fraud came out in the open, it was thought to be the mother of all “Scam” or “Fraud”. However, compared to latest “ 2G / 3 G” and “CWG” and “Hassan Ali” scams, “Satyam” lost it’s luster. Series of fraud over the last decade – “ Harshad Mehta – share market manipulation, Dinesh Dalmia – DSQ Software”, Ketan Parekh – Share price rigging “, “ C.R. Bhansali – CRB Capital, “ Uday Goyal – Arrow Global – Cheating investor, “Abdul Karim Telgi – fake Stamp Paper” “ The UTI Scam” have been surfacing regularly showing that governance control had been always wanting in this direction.

Against this back drop of loot what is the condition of common man and society. Still a huge population lives in below poverty level, millions go hungry to bed every night, housing / drinking water / health & medical facility, education etc. are dream for a very large section of society. Every 15 seconds one child dies in India, more than 4 lakh newborns die every year within a day of birth, 1/5th of children dying in the world are Indian, 1 in 3 undernourished children worldwide are Indian.

And still shamelessly we say “ India shining “.

Quote from Times of India dt.28 March , 2011 , Delhi edition

Commonwealth Games in Delhi saw over Rs.1,000 Crore being squandered as estimated by CAG. This money would have been enough to set up 5,000 state-of-the art or 10,000 basic primary schools across the country and could have taken care of the education of 1 million child labourers. It would have taught them to earn their bread in a more dignified manner.

Education, especially at the primary level, had an interesting journey since the Constitution came in to force on January 26, 1950. Articles 24, 39 and 45 together guaranteed children a stress-free childhood and felt they must get free and compulsory education till the age of 14 years. The importance of this quote – “Give a man a fish, you have fed him for today; Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime.”

The promise remained unfulfilled and the Union government in 1968 came out with a National Policy of Education. Nothing changed dramatically on the primary education front for 18 years. Rajiv Gandhi government felt the need to formulate the National Education policy , 1986.

A disturbed Supreme Court ruled in Mohini Jain vs State of Karnataka (1992 (3) SCC 666) that every citizen has a right to education under the Constitution and the state was under an obligation to establish educational institutions to enable citizens to enjoy the said right.

More assertive direction by the court in 1993 in Unni Krishnan judgment. It said, “Citizens have a fundamental right to education and it flows from right to life guaranteed under Article 21. Every child/citizen has a right to free education until he completes the age of 14 years. “The promise by successive governments and the SC rulings failed to provide education to all children.
But what is the reality ? Nearly 80 lakh children are still out of school of which 1.3 lakh children are in Delhi. The 2007 estimate of government puts the child labour population at 10.7 million. The dropout rate of children from primary school is 25%.

References

1. Rewriting Indian History – Francois Gautier
Indian Research Press, 2003
2. Code name God – Mani Bhaumik
Penguin Books, 2005
3. A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy – Chandradhar Sharma
Motilal Banarasidass , 2003
4. India – Historical Beginnings and the concept of Aryan
National Book Trust, 2007
5. In search of the Cradle of Civilization – George Feure Stein, Subhash Kak David Frawley
Motilal Banarasidass , 2008
6. Ancient India – R.C. Majumdar
Motilal Banarasidass , 2003
7. Indian Philosophy and Text Science – Edited by T.Wada
Motilal Banarasidass , 2010.
8. The Foundations of India Culture – Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry , 1996.
9. Times of India, New Delhi – Monday, March 28, 2011

2010 – The Scam Year

Scam after Scam, it seems there is no Government & Governance in the country. Before we could comprehend the massive scam of CWG, were hit by Adarsh Society Scam , 2 G Spectrum Scam , TN & UP and Karnataka Land Scam , UP Grain etc. Scams, Mining (Andhra Pradesh / Karnataka / Orissa ), NOIDA Land etc. Scams – endless list of loot of the Country for mind boggling amount. None are penalized , neither have been in the past.

Absolute silence of Prime Minister on Scams is intriguing. PM only talks of GDP growth – poor people remain in the same state. All the growth is looted by Industrialist / Businessmen / Babus / Politician / Police / Judiciary nexus. Common man going deeper & deeper in to problems – Food, Health, Drinking water , Basic education, Housing all remain in the dream.

These Scam amount could change all these basic needs. It is told that the amount siphoned by these people from India to Switzerland could solve all the financial needs for development work of the country for decades. It was also said that Indians may be poor but India is a rich country.

How much is the hunger of these Politician , Babus, Industrialists, Police, Judiciary etc. ? No justice for common man possible because my God died young. What more PM aspire at this age ? Why does not he hit back at these systems ? Is it the love of the Chair ?

Neglect of all kind of development work and exploitation of underprivileged over last few decades – Are these the cause of spread of “ Maoists”.

Should one take-up arms to get justice ? When the Catholic Priest, an associate of the Che’ Guevara in Bolivia, was asked after he was arrested – “You are a Priest, how could you take up arms for violence ? He replied “ Had there been Jesus Christ he would have also grip to the arms under such situation.

All Fixing

In young age I was a fan of Dara Singh, the Freestyle Wrestling world champion. Elders used to laugh at me and tell about all “got-up” matches. I never believed this & used to go to see the wrestling of Dara Singh.

Later, when I found out the truth of “ Fixing” I was crestfallen. How could they do such things with Sports - was my thoughts. It took quite some years to realize the totality.

Now, we live with “ Fixing” in every sphere of life – Cricket match fixing became famous (infamous) all over and people are talking to legalize betting. “Fixing” in Politics, Business, Police & Judiciary has become common. Newest rage is “ Media Fixing”.

Everything what we encounter daily is untrue – full of Scams & Fixing.

Is it Kaliyug ?
It is time to go for “ Banaprastha “ ? How knowledgeable were our Sages advising that after completion of “ garhasta dharma” one should renounce materialistic world & take up “ Banaprastha “

Rubbery Life - Conclusion

Conclusion

During last 50 years of ( Golden Jubilee 1961-2010 ) activity in rubber field , both Research and Industry, in India and abroad, I have seen many ups & down and types & nature of people in the field. After remaining more or less stagnant for long years due to lack of R & D activity, rubber industry in India saw positive developments during about last one and half decade. Modernization, induction of young technologist, education programme in the field coupled with global economic aspect ; Indian rubber industry has a bright future despite steep increase in raw rubber prices.

Major factor for development is positive mind set which was / is a deterrent aspect with elderly people. To understand that innovation and development are essential to do profitable business and float in turbulent industrial water is very important. For this one needs education & positive approach and look to longer horizon. Few appreciate need & help from Technical / Project Consultancy but people who do, are reaping the harvest. This tribe in luckily increasing and we see diversified activity & products in rubber field.

India has today reached to a respectable situation and standard level in rubber chemistry & technology and industrial development. Behind this there are major contributions from a number of rubber technologists and scientists who worked during 1950 through 1980 against many odds and succeeded to bring the country to the present state. First and foremost among these devoted scientists & technologists was Dr. D. Banerjee who started with a small rubber unit in 1940’s and lead the development work through 1980’s, especially with Indian Rubber Institute. Further names who made Golden Jubilee of their activity in rubber field are Mr. L.M. Jamnadas, Mr. S.V. Lathia , Mr. M.M. Patel, Mr. R.R. Pandit (not sure whether he continued with activity after retirement from Bayer India to cover 50 years), Mr. D.J. Bharucha, Dr. A.S. Ghag (not sure ), Dr. R.K Mathan etc. Mr. K.M. Phillip contributed in rubber field as management & administrator and not as a rubber technologist. I might have missed few names and would be thankful if others could add here.

As Consultant often I have come across people telling that you give detail information on the product manufacture or Project and implement the same to prove the correctness before talking about payment. When I asked them, do you tell same thing to a medical Doctor that after cure of illness or to a lawyer that after winning the suit or a Teacher that after your boy does good result in examination, only the payment will be made – they keep away. Tendency to get free information by even rich businessman is still today strong, especially with particular trading community.

It is high time to realize that like all other field (whether religion or education or industry ) one needs a Guru to guide in the right path to achieve result in shortest time and lower cost.

Unfortunately, there are many quacks in rubber field also who thrive on groupism. They talk big using borrowed words but heir contribution in the field is little. Ethics have never been their forte. Fortunately, the importance of education of Elastomer Chemistry & Technology is recognized and young educated persons are entering the industry. There is strong hope of rubber industry.

During my life time activity I always tried to encourage & help young persons in the field, both in Institutes and in industry. For the last three decades I have been able to create a pool of qualified young technologists while working at different places & situation like Bayer (India) Ltd., Modi Rubber Ltd. & Indian Rubber Institute and partly with IITs (Delhi & Kharagpur), NITs etc. who excelled later in their profession and came-up in the hierarchy. We had a very young technical team in Modi Rubber Ltd. as well as Bayer (India) Ltd. and most of them were sent for training, skill up-gradation & higher education to different organizations in India and abroad (Germany, Bayer AG & Continental Gummi, Werke , USA, Europe etc.) and to different National & International Conferences including presentation of Technical Paper in these conferences. All of them proved worthy of the faith invested on them. Like olden days rubber technologists in the industry used to be from Dunlop, in the present time ,during last two decades, similarly ex-Modi Rubber technologists went to different rubber / tyre industry of the country, even other countries. I definitely can claim some credit to the success of the people in the industry who are today VP, Director & GM etc. who have worked as junior with me and achieved today’s stature. It does not matter who recognizes this but facts cannot be altered and personally I am happy with my ex-colleagues success. Not to recognize will be their smallness. Few names are mentioned below . Obviously this is not complete and I might have missed many.

Ex-Modi Rubber Ltd. people like S.K. Mustafi ( Modi Rubber / Apollo Tyres) ,L.K. Mathur ( Metro Tyre ) ,Vijay Mishra ( J.K. Industries) , M. Mithal ( Apollo Tyres), VRS Hudda ( China) ,G.C. Upadhyaya (China) ,V.K Sinha (China ) ,V.K. Rathi (JK Industries) , N.P. Gupta ( Ralson India Ltd) ,H.K. Rizhwani ( Gujarat Multi Gas Base Chemical Pvt. Ltd.) and others like Dr. R. Mukhopadhyay ( IIT, Kharagpur / Bayer / JK Industries) ,S. Sridhar Shankar (IIT, Kharagpur / Prabhat Industries ) , Dr. B. Banerjee ( Ex – IRMRA, Phillips Carbon Black) ,Dr. S.K. Dharia ( IIT-D, IPCL / Haldia Petrochemcial ) ,Prof. Debabrata Chakraborty ( Head , Applied Chemistry, Calcutta University). Besides, many people form supplier industry and academic institution were also given strong support in their life at every stage.

Similarly, with IRI, insignificant people were brought into limelight during my activity to revive IRI, bringing it to today’s state. A big team was created making strong impact in the country’s rubber field. Of course , all people do not have enough broad mind & courage to support the correct thing and the loss is their which is quite visible now a days, especially in case of Delhi branch & Council. My contribution in team building is an established fact which cannot be wished away.

I again reiterate that purpose of this series of “Rubbery Life” is that the next generation may gain from this.

With best wishes.

RUBBERY LIFE PART-V

ISO
While working with Modi Rubber Ltd. I participated in International Standards Organisation ( ISO) / TC-45 ( Rubber & Rubber products ) activity along with Indian Standards Institution (ISI), later Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) and became the Convenor & then Chairman of TC-45 / SC-2, Testing Sub-Committee and took part in meetings of ISO TC-45 in different countries of the world for about a decade. Modi Rubber Ltd. sponsored me for all these years during 1980s enabling us to participate in the work and meetings every year in different countries for the ISO activity.

ISO / TC – 45 activity on behalf of the country involved lot of studies & laboratory experimental work using sophisticated instruments as well as secretarial job for sending comments, preparation of Draft Specification etc. Every year one member country hosted the meeting which used to last for 7 to 10 days, starting from 8.00 hrs to 18.00 hrs with one hour lunch break. All participants had to bear own all types of expenses for the total period and travel.

Standardization activity was slow and pain staking. Every point, technical or language & grammatical , was discussed & debated at length , put to voting for & against which had to be recorded , before accepting and proceeding further. Added to this often the subject was translated by interpreter from English to other language, primarily in French. Obviously the progress was very slow . Generally it takes about 5 years for finalization of a Specification starting from introduction of the subject.

After finalization by the Sub. Committee it has to be ratified by the main Committee and finally by the main body of TC-45. Then only it will be forwarded to ISO Head Quarter in Geneva for processing and printing. India did a good job during 1980s which got diluted slowly over the years with the retirement of certain key people who were active in this area. Besides the author some key people were Mr. M.M. Patel , Mr. M.S. Saxena of BIS , RRI Kottayam persons , later HASETRI persons etc.

IRCO

In the meantime, early 1980s we activated back the IRI Delhi branch which was in limbo and became the Chairman of the institute after some years. I, on behalf of Indian Rubber Institute, approached International Rubber Conference Organisation (IRCO ), UK for full membership with the support of AIRIA and academic institute like IIT, Kharagpur. For the first time we participated in IRCO Committee meeting at Harrogate, UK in 1987 and put forward the case of our membership with the strong backing of different countries like Germany, France , Yugoslavia , Russia etc. , representative of these countries were well known to me personally. India (IRI ) was accepted as a member of IRCO at this meeting. I should put on record of strong support of Dr.S.Wolff of Germany, Prof. J.B.Donnet of France , Mr. Lubijc of Yoguslavia towards the membership of India in IRCO against UK which was reluctant to let India in. Late Mr.D.C.Verma , ex Goodyear, was present in these meetings along with me and helped in the matter.

I represented the country and IRI in IRCO meetings held in different countries for over a decade, last being in 2003 at Nuremberg, Germany. Our active participation in IRCO Conferences and meetings over the years was highly appreciated. In the process we got the approval for holding the first ever IRCO recognized international Rubber Conference, Rubbercon 93 in India which was held at Delhi in February 1993 . It was a great success and opened up the avenue for fund raising for the cause of IRI activity and purchase of own offices all over the country. Fund raised from 1993 IRCO Conference was utilized for the purchase of IRI Delhi branch office, the first ever one in the IRI history. Subsequent conferences generated enough fund to establish the Council office at Kolkata after more than five decades of existence of IRI in the country. Similarly, Bombay branch also collected enough fund from their conference to purchase IRI Bombay branch office. This put an end to the nomad life of IRI functioning from different companies offices and got it’s own identity. This was a great achievement. I was instrumental to book 2010 for IRC Conference in India ( recorded in the minutes of the meeting during my time of IRCO participation ) and understand that IRI is going to organize the same in Mumbai in 2010.

Consultancy Activity

Immediately after leaving Modi Rubber Ltd. in 1993 , I started own Consultancy organization in rubber field in the name of “Polym Consultants” followed by “KPS Consultants & Impex Pvt. Ltd.” and established own office at Vasant Kunj, New Delhi which was shifted to Sheikh Sarai, Phase-II and finally to Devika Tower, Nehru Place, New Delhi. I never operated from my residence which is a common practice with the so called consultants who take up this title on retirement or leaving the job and start functioning from residence by simply printing a name card.

Soon I realized that there was a big gap in technical knowledge in rubber industry of medium and small scale, with respect to usage of proper material and processing to manufacture quality rubber products. Most of the industry had no Quality Control system and testing laboratory. Production and technology was driven by skilled mistri or foreman of the unit. This was more wide spread in northern belt. But they were highly enterprising and doing good business. With a little help towards better technology / process and material they could do much better.

Hence, when I approached different units all over the country, response was highly encouraging. With my past more than two decades of activity all over the country, also through IRI educational activity & conferences, I was already a well known figure in the country and once it was known that I am now working independently, I started receiving calls from all over the industry. Often, the working pattern was beyond the area of rubber technology – in other fields like market study, ISO certification, management system, training, education courses, sports goods etc. Our working activity was spread all over the country and many countries outside India.



Initially the consultancy activity was started with north Indian rubber industries which spread fast to all over India and soon to neighbouring countries. Subsequently, the activities were extended to all major Asian countries and to Russia.

Later, the company’s activity was extended to trading , import & export, as my son Anomitra joined the company after completion of his B.E & MBA degrees as well as short stint of work with industry. He brought in modernization and fresh ideas & shifted our office to prime location ( Nehru Place ) of Delhi. He started designing & manufacturing machineries at selected units and exporting to different countries. Similarly, specialty items were imported and marketed to Indian Rubber Industry.

Our activities were thus divided into two parts, Technical Consultancy & International trading.

Consultancy activity were further sub-divided in normal technical consultancy for the existing rubber units to solve their problems , carryout development work and modernization as well as quality control activity. The other more important activity was the Project Consultancy – to set up new Plant which would cover detail project report ( DPR ) , machinery, market etc. and Technical know-how for manufacturing the product. In the process we have worked for the projects for manufacturing different products like auto tyre & tube, cycle tyre & tube, industrial & printing rollers, railway items , sports goods, automotive components, rubber to metal bonded items, latex products , coated fabric, shoe & hawai and many other products over these 17 years.


My first client was Ralson India Ltd., Ludhiana with whom I am attached till date. I started with Ralson India Ltd. when it was a smaller unit and went through the period of major expansion & development , modernization and establishing of Q.C and R & D laboratory during last more than one and half decade. Today, Ralson India Ltd. is the largest producer of cycle / rickshaw tyres in the country. Later Ralson India expanded to the manufacture of auto tyres in a separate modern unit in Doraha , near Ludhiana.

For quite few years our consultancy activity was intensively carried out in the total of north India spreading over Delhi , Haryana, Punjab, Kanpur ,Meerut and other parts of Uttar Pradesh etc. Major activity for about a decade was in Punjab covering all major centers like Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hosiarpur , Amirtsar etc. Major industries in this area were involved in the manufacture of cycle tyre / tube , auto tyre , sports goods and hawai. We introduced Laboratory testing and Quality Control system with most of these industries besides introducing better technology and processing which helped in improvement of the product and also in cost saving. Initially, Shatabdi Express was not there and traveling used to take lot of time and also not comfortable. The units in North India were smaller and lacked in technology & quality control. They had no laboratory and regular testing system as well as did not have any suitable rubber technologists.

Similarly, activity in Haryana covered Gurgaon, Manesar & Ambala besides Chandigarh & Derabasi. Also some work was carried out at Baddi in Himachal.

Our consultancy activities covered other part of India as well like in Western India major work was carried out in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Indore, Bhopal and in Gujarat state areas covered were Ahemadabad, Baroda etc. We carried out certain activity, some of the major project, in South India in places like Kannur (Tyre Plant ) & Rubber Board, Kottayam both in Kerala, in Bangalore in Karnataka, in Hyderabad, in Andhra Pradesh & Chennai in Tamil Nadu. Relatively lesser activity was in Eastern part of the country, some in Kolkata which any way did not have any more dynamic rubber industry. A number of work was carried out in Jamshedpur, now in Jharkhand. Of-course, regular activity was carried out with IIT, Kharagpur for academic and R&D purpose as well as organizing and attending Conferences on Rubber Chemistry & Technology.

Lately , since about two years, we have embarked upon a major Project work at Agartala, Tripura for Tripura Forest Development & Plantation Corporation Ltd. as well as with IL&FS Cluster Development for the development of Tripura Rubber Park , close to Agartala. The work is continuing.

Activity in Foreign Countries

Our major area of activity has been in the field of auto tyre sector. During these years we worked with many medium and smaller automotive tyre manufacturer who really needed help for technology and process improvement and benefited immensely with respect to quality and establish their product in the market – both domestic and export.

The major activity in auto tyre field outside the country was establishing a green field tyre manufacturing facility in Bangladesh, which, in fact , was the first auto tyre unit in the country established more than twelve years back with whom we were associated for a long period. Starting with production of small size tyres , it reached upto 16” tyre size about six years back when we departed from there. It was a great achievement to bring tyre technology to this backward area which lacked in all aspects - machinery, raw material, suitable skilled manpower and above all technical know-how . We had to take skilled persons from India and train local people over the period and introduce Quality control concept. Also they were trained for field performance analysis and interaction with fleet owners and customers.

In Bangladesh, we had a wide ranging activity covering a large number of rubber products manufacturing units making Rubber Roller, Bridge Bearing Pads, Shoe, Printing Roller, Cycle tyre / Tube , Retrading compound etc. During this period, we traveled throughout the country, from Chitagong to Syhlet, most of the activities were ofcourse in and around Dhaka. Bangladesh activity was for about a decade, from mid 90s, to mid 2000.

Similarly, we worked with tyre companies, established and new, in Nepal and Indonesia. Besides tyre industry, we worked with and established many non-tyre product manufacturing facility in these countries.

We were engaged by the only automotive tyre manufacturing unit in Nepal, near Gorkha for up-gradation of the technology & product quality. We worked for about two years and introduced many measures for improvement in the process and the product. However, this unit was very poorly managed and the output & efficiency of the plant was comparatively low and the people lacked motivation. Except one technical person , there were no experienced person of the tyre or rubber field which was a big hindrance in the implementation of the suggestions. The management and head office was far away in Kathmandu and communication system was not satisfactory. The original machinery and technology was from China of 1980’s and the unit needed lot of fund to change it to modern state which they could not afford. Hence, the desired result could not be achieved.

Besides this big tyre unit, Consultancy activity was also done with a medium size Rice Roller manufacturer over a period of time giving them input about machinery, processing, compounding, testing etc. The concerned person is still in touch with us.

In Indonesia the work carried out was with a large size tyre retreading company, manufacturing own retreading compound as well as doing tyre retreading. The units were near Bogor and another in Medan. Our job was to modernize and upgrade the compound & mixing procedure and tyre retreading system.

For project consultancy work, we have carried out many such activity out side the country as well like with Holland , Malaysia , Thailand besides other major Asian countries as explained below.

We were approached by a private European company in Russia for both R & D activity and marketing of a new product namely, a Carbon filler for partial replacement of Carbon black in different compounds, both tyre & non-tyre. Under this project we carried out intensive R & D activity regarding the application of this new filler i.e Shungit in different rubber compounds and presented the findings in different conferences in India, China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia etc. as well as published a number of Papers with these findings in different journals form India , USA (Rubber World ), China & Korea. This work took us to all these countries and Russia repeatedly to meet different rubber industry, including leading tyre companies of China, Korea (Kumho & Nexen Tire ) , Japan (Yokohama, Toyo & Bridgestone ) to hold detail technical discussion and making presentation about the product to these companies. Sampling of the filler were done to all these companies over a period of time who carried out Laboratory evaluation to establish it’s suitability. In some cases large number of truck tyres were made and sold to actual users to get feedback of it’s performance. Similarly, in India the product was evaluated in number of non-tyre products and had good response. Visits and samplings were made to different non-tyre product manufacturing companies in Malaysia with whom detail discussions were held to explain the suitability of the product as well as cost saving possibility.