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1.
The ICICI – West Bengal Infrastructure
Development Corporation Limited (ICICI WINFRA -
IWIN in short) is a joint venture company
between ICICI Bank Group (the second largest
bank in India, second bank in Asia and first
Indian Company to be listed in NYSE) and
Government of West Bengal formed primarily with
the objective of accelerating the development of
Infrastructure. ICICI Bank Group holds 76% of
the Company's equity while West Bengal
Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) holds
the balance 24% on behalf of the state
government. The Company was incorporated in
January 1995, but started significant operations
from August 1997.
Further reading.
This collaboration is working to boost the food
processing sector in West Bengal by developing a
number of food parks at Howrah, Malda, Sankrail,
a tea park at Siliguri. It has also prepared
comprehensive investor’s guide/ data document
for attracting Food Processing industry to West
Bengal. Contains details of existing production
of fruits, vegetables, spices, milk, poultry,
meat, etc, specifies West Bengal’s advantage and
policy environment in West Bengal.
Further reading.
2. Pune. Till not too long ago Anita Khabia was
another humble Pune housewife, renowned only
amongst her friends' circle for her lip-smacking
Kolhapuri Thecha, a traditional, fiery garlic
chutney. Then one fine day Khabia put together a
business plan, to package and sell the
blistering paste, and sent it (the plan not the
Thecha) to Pradeep Chordia, promoter of the
120-acre Chordia Food Park, 50 km from Pune in
Maharashtra's Satara district. Khabia's company,
Mona Enterprises, was soon on its way. The
product, which has been on the market since
early this year, is doing an average monthly
turnover of Rs 6 lakh.
Chordia's model is as straightforward as it is
unique: Entrepreneurs send him business plans,
or alternatively he himself hand-picks budding
businesspersons to execute proposals. The food
park provides the infrastructure, which has been
set up with an investment of Rs 16 crore, half
of which came from the Chordia Group's internal
resources. The entrepreneurs then sell their
products to group company Chordia Foods, which
markets them via its retail outlets. The plan is
to have 15 such outlets in Pune shortly.
Further reading.
3.) After I knew of the above mentioned
initiatives in the states of West Bengal and
Maharashtra, I was happy, but not surprised.
Real surprise came to me when I read
this file. Being from the same state,
I know of the potentials Bihar has in agri and
food processing sector. With the retail boom
around in India, Bihar might become a good place
to invest for processing agri products. The
Bihar government should follow on the foot steps
of West Bengal by collaborating with some bank
for investment in agri and food sector or may be
how knows it all might take one Chordia to come
to Bihar to provide the momentum the state
needs.
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Comments: |
Thank
you, Prabhat Jee! Being a
non-resident Bihari, I don't have
any information on the current
status of Food Processing Industry
status in Bihar but like any other
Bihari, I have full faith in this
potential area and one of them is 'Makhana'
processing. In fact, like Punjab,
Baramati (Maharashtra), Gujarat
etc., Bihar needs big investors. It
takes hundreds of years for any
small scale industry to grow up with
or without government help.
So Bihar is waiting for big
investors who could create thousands
of jobs in this sector and a big
relief for farmers and another
chance for small and medium
entrepreneurs. - Ranjan Rituraj
Sinh - July 27, 2007 |
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