Mr. Chetan Chauhan, a well know cricketer & commentator who twice remained member of the Lok Sabha from Amroha and also owns a small paper mill in Gajraula, U.P. delivered the keynote speech at the symposium. He started his speech by highlighting the strong fundamentals of India “It is the second fastest growing major economy in the world which is set to expand at a faster pace than China in 2012. Agriculture is one of the strongholds of the Indian economy and accounts for 14.6 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2009-10. India is the second largest producer of rice, wheat, sugar. 50% of the Indian population is below the age of 25 and more than 65% hovers below the age of 35. Economists predict that by 2020, India will be among the leading economies of the world.”
Further he elaborated the Do’s for UP & Uttaranchal Region in order to become efficient and competitive, “Paper industry in this region basically comprises of small & mid size units and there are some challenges for them to overcome in order to have sustainability. So, the key aspects to be looked in are raw material availability, better technology for efficiency & overall competitiveness, better pulping technologies, manpower and lastly product development & quality.”
Talking about the growth drivers for paper industry like economic growth, increasing government spending on education, population growth, changing demographics, improving living standards, increase in advertising and direct mailers, growth in print media he concluded the speech by giving an anecdote “Businesses will not survive with conservative outlook. Systematic approach along with better working culture combined with latest technology will enable the industry to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. With the country’s economy growing robustly, the paper consumption in India is bound to expand.”
