The Engineering Export Promotion Council India (EEPC India) asked the exporters to improve standards and compliance with technical regulations to maintain market share.
The directive comes in the backdrop of a sharp fall in engineering exports and was conveyed to the exporters by the EEPC India Executive Director and Secretary Bhaskar Sarkar at a brain-storming session with senior Commerce Ministry officials in the industrial town of Faridabad
The session was held to identify the areas where action was needed to arrest the slowdown in exports.
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Mr. Sarkar said in the current scenario, engineering manufacturer-exporters have to upgrade their standards not only to maintain their market share but also to make new forays.
He said an analysis of India’s major destinations for engineering exports like the U.S. and major European countries, revealed that technical regulations and standards for the products imported into the country were partially blocking the growth of exports.
Therefore, India needs better preparedness to face the challenges of new standards and stricter regulations. They also need to know about the caution that they should exercise while using the services of accredited bodies or while getting systems certification, a senior official said.
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Moreover, with focus shifting on ‘Make in India’ and various initiatives taken by the government, the quality of products and services need to improve.
The Faridabad event was the pilot-phase of government-industry interface which will be taken to different engineering clusters with various product ranges.
Addressing the gathering, Former Chairman, EPPC, R.P. Jhalani, admitted that major products like iron and steel, electrical machinery, industrial machinery, suffer from lack of standards harmonization. The need of the hour was creation of more labs and certification bodies.