The Vidarbha Industries Association (VIA) and Laxminarayan Institute of Technology Alumni Association (LITAA) on Monday decided to have a synergy for common goal of industrialisation in the region. The meeting held at VIA office in the city witnessed participation of office-bearers of both the associations. The participants observed that various projects falling under the SME sector like Pharma, Chemical, Food and bamboo etc., are feasible in this region. Feasible projects under all these areas will be identified by the technocrats and the same will be shared with the entrepreneurs of the region.

 

They also discussed to explore the opportunities for export oriented projects in the region. It was also decided to hold a meeting every fortnight to see what are the feasible projects that can be started by the entrepreneurs. At the outset, Girish Deodhar, Chairman of VIA MSME Forum, welcomed all the guests present from LITAA and informed that VIA is more than a five-decade old organisation continuously working for the industrialisation of the Vidarbha region. “Due to this pandemic, the world is not as comfortable with China as it was earlier. Many countries including India are banning imports from China. Keeping in mind the “Atma Nirbhar Bharat” initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian industries should start manufacturing products in the category import substitutes and other export oriented products.

 

Even Union MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari in most of his recent motivational speeches has urged the industrialists and entrepreneurs to work in the regard,” he said. Suresh Rathi, President of VIA in his welcome address welcomed the eminent guests from LITAA. Ajay Deshpande, Chairman of LITAA, said LITAA was founded in 1996 by Dr Bagde and the aim was to create opportunities for placements, felicitating meritorious students. “We are registering a section 8 company for incubation centre in LIT named Technovision Foundation. We have a huge pool of talent under one umbrella. Now, apart from this, our one more objective is to promote industries. We as a pool of talent can provide the details of the different projects which are viable to set up here in this region and VIA can provide the administrative support to materialize this joint effort.

 

There are various industries in our area, which imports required material from outside of this region or out of India. We can help the industries and businessmen to setup these industries,” he said. The association has connections with big venture catalysts who may invest in new projects here. Further, they said that the cluster approach can be a turnaround point for this region. Gaurav Sarda, Secretary - VIA, summed the discussions and said that it is the golden decade for going forward and starting with such great enthusiasm. Dr Suhas Buddhe, Vice President VIA; Anita Rao, Joint Secretary of VIA; Madhav Labhe, Vice President of LITAA; Utkarsh Khopkar, Treasurer; Arun Lanjewar, Secretary, Vinod Kolkatwar, Member (South Chapter) were among the prominent persons present.