MAP- Excellent Prospects for U.P. Entrepreneurs

A WHO (World Health Organisation) estimate tells us that about 80 per cent of the people in developing countries relies on traditional plant-based medicine for their primary health care. However, the recent revival of interest in the traditional/natural/ alternative medicine is not limited to the developing world but is a world-wide phenomenon.

To say that India is one of the richest repositories of Medicinal and Aromatic plants (MAP) in the World would be to state the obvious. The industry oriented commercial items in this field is being thoroughly exploited and explored now in order to meet the increasing demands of the constantly growing industry and consumers alike.

My sincere thanks to the scientists of CIMAP, Lucknow for their outstanding contribution to the newsletter in the form of lead article which I am sure the readers especially the MSMEs and the prospective entrepreneurs would find of great benefit. We would be glad of your feedback.

The much awaited excise notification and which IIA had been fighting for, regarding excise exemptions for SSI into big branding has been issued this month but much is left to be desired as the benefit of exemption will be available in respect of goods bearing the brand name or trade name of another person only if they 'are in the nature of packing materials, namely, printed cartons of paper or paper board, metal containers, adhesive tapes, stickers and metal labels', vide Notification No.47/2008-Central Excise dated September 1, 2008 of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, GoI.

The above notification is being published in the present issue for the benefit of our readers.

The question plaguing us at IIA and I am sure all our counterparts elsewhere is that why this benefit has been limited only to those SSIs which are into packaging activity and not to all manufacturers ie those who are manufacturing branded products other than the packaging material for large companies? So the matter has still to be pursued at our level.

On the positive note, our Agra Chapter organized an excellent Workshop on 'Status, Issues & Problems of MSME Entrepreneurs & Exporters of Prominent Industrial Sectors in Agra Division.'

We got some really encouraging responses from the Govt dignitaries who attended the event and may well expect a couple of large scale development projects for the region in near future.

While this newsletter goes into print, we are yet again faced with a grave challenge in the form of a recent order by UPPCL imposing power cuts on the industry during 10 PM to 6 AM. Time to act!