Rajkot SMEs to get design, marketing lessons

To address the issue of scarcity of skilled manpower, the Rajkot Machine Tools Manufacturers Association (RMTMA) has set the ball rolling for imparting education to workers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on subjects such as design, tools, marketing, technology and even management. Some of these programmes have been initiated with the help of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido).

Rajkot is India’s second-largest manufacturing hub for machine tools after Bangalore. It has a turnover of around Rs 800 crore per year and is growing by 30 per cent annually. The industry is currently facing a shortage of skilled manpower and the association has started these programmes to address this issue.

“The Rajkot machine tools industry is growing very fast and domestic demand from the auto and infrastructure industries is huge. But skilled manpower is still a problem,” said Sailesh Kava, president of the RMTMA. He added, “We must prepare ourselves for global as well as domestic competition. The association has plans to organise 12-15 programmes relating to tool design, marketing, technology and skill development.”

Raju Bhanderi, vice-president of the association, said, “At present, the export share of the industry is very nominal. The share of exports in Rajkot’s production has decreased from 25 per cent to 5 per cent during the last couple of years, as most players are serving the domestic market. So far we have exported to Gulf countries, Sri Lanka and other Asian countries, but to grow more on the international front we must upgrade our products, technology and marketing strategy. The association’s new initiative will help us in this endeavour.”

Under this programme, Unido will educate the industry about everything from technology to marketing on an international platform. Unido will appoint two national- and international-level experts to impart knowledge on technology upgradation. These experts will then visit the selected machine tools units and study them.

Rajkot has about 500 small- and medium-machine tool manufacturing units. During the last three years the turnover of the industry has increased from Rs 500 crore to Rs 800 crore due to rising domestic demand. The industry employs about 25,000 people.