The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Governor opens Stona-2006

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 02, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Governor opens Stona-2006

Staff Reporter

The five-day exhibition offers varieties of granite and marble and stone artefacts

BANGALORE: Governor T.N. Chaturvedi inaugurated Stona-2006, an exhibition on construction stones such as marble, granite, sand stones and plates, at the Palace Grounds here on Wednesday.

The five-day exhibition offers exciting colours of granites and marbles and stone artefacts for prospective house builders and a new range of machinery and their parts for those in the stone business.

The exhibition has nearly 100 stalls; it has an area earmarked as food court, where South Indian and North Indian food are available.

Jaipur stone artefacts and sand stone artefacts are an attraction at the exhibition. A piano made in white granite, classical instruments, such as the veena, the tabla, the mridangam, attracted attention. An exhibit of a war tank, priced at Rs. 7.5 lakhs, put up by the Granite Products Corporation Pvt. Ltd., was another attraction.

The biggest of the stalls put up by Classic Marbles, has regular entertainment shows, including those by Russian dancers.

The Governor, who appreciated the concept of the exhibition dedicated to stones, said he was happy that these exhibitions were being held on regular basis in the city and that they were attracting crowds.

K. Syed Haroon Rasheed, Vice-President of All India and Stone Association (AIGSA), which is organising the event, gave an introduction to Stona-2006.

Satyananda Mishra, Additional Secretary, Government of India, released a souvenir. Vittorio Mecozzi, Italian Trade Commissioner, Mumbai, released an exhibitors' directory.

R. Veeramani, founder President of AIGSA and Chairman Granites, Natural Stones and Products Panel, CAPEXIL, Kolkata, spoke. Entry to the exhibition is free.

Hurdle for investors

Italian Trade Commissioner Vittorio Mecozzi has said that the Indian bureaucracy was often a hurdle for foreign investors.

Speaking to presspersons at the inauguration of STONA here on Wednesday, he said, "Things have started to improve, especially after the memorandum of understanding signed one year ago between India and Italy. Compared to China, the Indian bureaucracy is still a hindrance when it comes to foreign investments." Mr. Mecozzi said Italy exported goods valued over $ 23.40 million to India. These included capital goods, textile machinery and electronic items. He said 10 Italian companies are participating in STONA. A spokesperson for Italian trade, Associazione Italiana Marmomacchine, exporting stone and granite finishing machinery, said from the qualitative standpoint, Indian and Brazilian granites differed. According to U.S. Customs figures, both countries were doing well but the export growth differed. Compared to a 23.5 per cent increase in imports to the U.S. from Brazil, it was almost six times from India over a three-year period.

There has been noteworthy growth in India's stone exports because of the investments in machinery and equipment from Italy. According to data for the first 10 months of 2005, India had become the fourth largest buyer of Italian stone technology with purchases worth over 33 million Euros. These technologies are being showcased at STONA.

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