The Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association (MADITSSIA) will be promoting, besides industrial equipment, renewable energy also through the third edition of its four-day Indexpo, to be held in Madurai between Thursday and Sunday.
Having joined hands with the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA), the industrial expo will also feature a separate enclosure for the recently-launched Tamil Nadu Renewable Energy Exhibition (TREE) initiative that will promote the use of alterative energy.
Addressing a press conference in Madurai on Monday, association president V.S. Manimaran said that the trade body had inked a memorandum of understanding with TEDA, following which it was hosting TREE in the Indexpo. “In an era of acute power shortage, the use of renewable energy must be promoted. The TREE will feature around 40 stalls for this purpose. Further, TEDA would also station its vehicle that promotes renewable energy at the expo venue.”
The Indexpo 2012 would feature some of the latest equipment in the field that would enable industries to both increase production and cut down costs. Holding such expos in Madurai would spread the use of modern equipment in southern districts, he added.
K.P. Murugan, vice-president, said that several banks were also taking part in the expo to encourage new entrepreneurs set up business ventures and help existing micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) consumers scale up by buying new equipment.
K.S. Serma Pandiyan, secretary, said that several transportation companies were also taking part in the expo which will help boost industrialisation of southern districts of Tamil Nadu. M. Chandrasekaran, vice-chairman of the expo, said that it would feature 125 stalls with participants from across the country. Of the total three bays, two would be fully air-conditioned enclosures spanning across 21,000 sq.ft.
Further, the expo has also been approved by the Industrial Trade Promotion Organisation, the nodal agency of the Central government for promoting the country’s external trade.
K. Nandakumar, vice-chairman of the expo, said that several seminars have been planned along the sidelines of the expo. They include on topics such as ‘Skill development programme and cluster awareness programme,’ ‘Lean manufacturing RAO-TAGUCHI OA model of Toyota practices,’ ‘New technology in plastic industries,’ ‘Scope of modern food processing industry,’ ‘Developments in rubber mixing technology;’ and ‘Green revolution in making cleaning products.’
While entry for the first seminar is free, participants would have to pay a fee for the others. Besides TEDA, the partners of the expo are MSME Development Institute, a Central Government organisation at Chennai, National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), Directorate of Industries and Commerce and Tamil Nadu Small Industries Development Corporation.
The venue is Tamukkam grounds. The entry fee for business visitors, who will be provided with a detailed guide on the expo, was Rs. 50 and their entry timings are between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. The entry fee for general visitors is Rs. 20 and their entry timings are from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
