Apitco helps 150 rice millers adopt polishing technology

About 150 of the 260 millers in Krishna district have installed modern 'whitener' polishing technology in their rice mills at an estimated cost of Rs 15 crore, thanks to the guidance and help given by Apitco Limited, a premier technical consultancy organisation jointly promoted by all-India financial institutions, commercial banks and state industrial development corporations.

The new technology helps millers produce export quality rice and compete with exporters in the country. Now, they can also obtain 4 per cent more rice from paddy than what they got in the past.

N M Venugopal, Apitco regional officer and project associate, told Business Standard that Apitco had trained 6,100 young aspirants "� 1,000 each in Krishna and Prakasam districts, 1,200 in Guntur district, 1,600 in West Godavari district, and 1,300 in Khammam district "� in various trades, small industries and businesses and helped them start their own units under various government schemes in 2005-06.

He said the beneficiaries had set up dairy units, cashew processing units, auto repair and mechanical shops, garment units, motor winding shops, electrical appliances units, kirana shops, phone booths and TV repair shops. Weavers were trained in micro enterprising in textiles and provided with looms.

Apitco project associates helped the beneficiaries from project selection and conception to inauguration and marketing, and trained them in maintenance of accounts and attending to bank and other financial transactions.

He said Apitco helped revive the famous imitation jewellery (gold plating) industry at Machilipatnam by assisting goldsmiths in setting up 20 modern lacquering plants at a cost of Rs 2 crore.

These units provided a new direction to about 10,000 goldsmith families and 110 gold plating units, which suffered from outdated technology, low production design, low productivity, poor marketing and lack of branding.

Many goldsmiths were sent to the Central Electro Chemical Research Institute at Karaikudi for training. They were taken on exposure visits to high-tech gold plating industries at Rajkot, Mumbai and Agra. Encouraged by Apitco, 18 artisans formed Ujjwala Imitation Jewellery Society.

Venugopal said that Apitco had also persuaded about 24 turmeric units at Duggirala, Kollur and Kollipara in Guntur district to do away with outdated furnaces and adopt modern pulverisation and processing technologies from units at Erode (Tamil Nadu) to produce export quality turmeric.

Erode units follow latest processing procedures and use mobile steam boiling systems whereas the units in AP use chemicals in drying and polishing turmeric as a result of which they incur 5 per cent wastage and get a poor quality product.