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Karnataka keen to house centre for tech-transfer

Flush with the success of the Global Investors' Meet that drew world-wide attention of Karnataka's industrial capability, the state is now pitching itself to house the centre for transfer of technology of cleaner production to be promoted in India by the United Nation's Industrial Development Organisation, or UNIDO.

A high-level technical fact finding mission on Transfer of Environmentally Sound Technologies, or TEST, of UNIDO and a Switzerland government organisation that will fund the centre, was in Bangalore for an on-the-spot study. The team had already visited Gujarat after preliminary talks in New Delhi and would be visiting Hyderabad before rounding up its visit.

Participating in an interactive session organised by the Greater Mysore Chamber of Industry with the mission members Karnataka State Industries Commissioner V P Baligar came out with eight reasons which favoured the centre's location in the city. They included the recent Global Investors' Meet that would result in more than 30 large industries and 100 medium scale industries setting up units within the next two years.

Baligar said that Karnataka was the first state in the country to provide incentive to small-scale units for initiating steps for cleaner production. The first regional centre for cleaner production was also set up in the state and it had the necessary expertise to support the industry and transfer of new environmentally sound technologies.

Baligar said that the state had expertise in technologies in various fields including aerospace, information technology, power, food processing and machine tools. More than 103 research and development centres were functioning in the state and over 100 multinational companies have their presence.

He said the government was in the process of making changes in the Industrial Policy announced in 1996 and the revised policy would be released shortly. Among other things the government was planning to set up a technology development fund under which industries, especially in the small-scale sector, would be eligible for loans at lower interest rates for technology upgradation. This would be in addition to the Rs 20-billion fund announced by the central government.

Baligar said the state had a very powerful green lobby that was acting as a watchdog on industrial pollution besides the industry itself was enlightened one.

UNIDO expert Heinz Levenberger who looks after the Vietnam Cleaner Production Centre in his remarks said that UNIDO was looking for a centre in India to set up the centre for Transfer of Environmentally Sound Technologies.

He was fully appreciative of the stand taken by the state in promoting clean production technologies that were not only energy saving but also result in cutting costs. India was the first among the six countries to start cleaner production centres and had taken a pioneering role, he added.

UNI

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