Country Focus
India’s plastics sector charting growth On the surface, India’s triennially held plastics show, Plastindia, seems to have closed on a successful note with exhibitors praising the new venue in Gandhinagar, even though they were barely given a few months’ notice about the move from Pragati Maidan, Delhi, last year. The organiser, Plastindia Foundation, said the show had 1,600 exhibitors from 32 countries. Despite the reservations, it also confirmed that the show will return to Gandhinagar in 2018. Venue well received but improvements needed India’s largest plastics show, Plastindia 2015, was held in a new venue at Gandhinagar, Gujarat, from 5-10 February. Though the spanking new exhibition halls were well received, exhibitors lamented the inadequate onsite facilities like logistics, toilets, food outlets as well as labour issues in the setting up of booths while transportation to the centre and accommodation for visitors proved to be a bane. Though Gandhinagar is Gujarat’s new capital city, it is located 30 km from Ahmedabad, the nearest city with an airport and hotels of international standards. Thus, the scarcity of taxis and private cars for hire from Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar also frustrated the transportation issue further, added to the 1 to 1.5 hour ride to the exhibition centre.
The spanking new exhibition halls at Gandhinagar
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MARCH / APRIL 2015
The 9th edition of the show was moved from Delhi’s Pragati Maidan, where it has been held for more than 20 years, to Gujarat last year. The reasons given were that Pragati Maidan was out-dated and lacked modern facilities. The organiser did reduce the rental for the exhibition booths “but did not offer any other benefits,” according to an exhibitor. An official from Indian woven machinery maker Lohia Group said the exhibition halls lacked proper supply of high tension power distribution, water supply and drainage system, which is important for running live demonstrations of machinery. “The outdoor advertising was also not very impressive to attract visitors. Since the facility is new, considerations should have been made for hanging branding and fascia options, which allow the exhibitors to have better branding options,” said the official. Meanwhile, Khushboo Doshi, of Gujarat-based extrusion machinery maker Rajoo Engineers praised the new venue but said that being "just a good venue does not ensure the success of an exhibition of this magnitude. The onus also lies with the show organisers and we feel there was much more that could have been done.” The move was undertaken to boost the economic status of Gujarat, which also houses a majority (60%) of India’s plastics processors, as well as major Indian machinery makers for the plastics sector. Subhash Kadakia, President of Plastindia, announced rebates on purchases of machines at the show. When asked if any of Rajoo’s customers took up on this, Khushboo said, “Many of our existing customers and new prospects planning to start their units in Gujarat have taken up the assistance.” Plastindia claimed that the event had 35% more visitors over the 2012 show, with 200,000 visitors in total, thus making it the third largest plastics exhibition globally, after the K and Chinaplas shows. Even so, exhibitors lamented the quality of visitors especially from overseas markets that were less impressive compared to the previous show held in Pragati Maidan. According to Khushboo, “Rajoo did receive an overwhelming response and in terms of numbers, it was more or less what we would normally get in Pragati Maidan, but many overseas visitors did not attend. Nascent stage, hence the exposure India does need the international exposure, given that its plastics sector is still at a fledgling stage. According to Kadakia, "Currently, India's per capita plastic consumption is 9.7 kg/year and likely to triple over