Indian Institute of Packaging plans to set up a Center near Ahmedabad

IIP is working to develop packaging standards for at least 500 commodities within the next ten years

With a target of formulating packaging standards for at least 500 food items within the next ten years, the Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, is also working towards enhancing awareness among small scale industries to exploit export opportunities by focussing on packaging. Meanwhile, IIP is also planning to set up an institute here in Gujarat, preferably near Ahmedabad.

As N C Saha, director, IIP said, "The new government is taking a lot of interest to focus on packaging norms, and how that can be used to enhance our prospects on the exports front. We are currently working with all the export promotion councils etc, to devise packaging standards for all commodities. The target is to prepare standards for at least 500 items within the next ten years."

Moreover, he added that Narendra Modi as the chief minister of Gujarat had expressed interest to set up an IIP campus here, and accordingly, the state government too had identified a piece of land near Gandhinagar.

"We, however, are looking to have a piece of land, around 15 acres, near Ahmedabad, especially nearby the industrial clusters so that industry has access to our laboratory for day to day testing purposes," he said adding that it would also be easier to train operators and supervisors when the campus is near an industrial belt.

While the cost for building the campus would come from the Centre, the IIP wants free land from the state government, and as an autonomous body it generates its own revenues to run its operations.

It conducts post graduate as well as short term and distance learning courses in the packaging industry, as well as provides testing facilities, and also offers consultancy to industry.