India 2018

Industry 341
table and kitchen glassware, glass bangles and other glassware. There has
been growing acceptability of the Indian flat glass products in the global market.
The Indian manufacturers had explored new markets. There is considerable
scope in demand for glass fibre products particularly due to growth in
petrochemical sector and allied products. The production of flat glass, fibre
glass, glass bangles and glasswares during 2016-17 were 90298.99 thousand
square metres, 122152.67 tonnes, ` 30 crores, ` 3401.94 crores respectively.
Paper Industry: India continued to rule as one of the fastest growing paper
market in the world. The growing knowledge base coupled with synergistic
contributions from flagship schemes, namely, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, (SSA)
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), Inclusive Education for the
Disabled at Secondary School (IEDSS), Adult Education, Right to Education
and central government scholarship and education loan scheme, assured a
robust demand for paper and paper board. The industry was de-licenced in
July, 1997. As per the the present policy, FDI up to 100 per cent is allowed on the
automatic route for the pulp and paper sector. There are around 850 units which
manufacture pulp, paper, paper board and newsprint with an installed capacity
of nearly 25 million tonnes out of which 3.5 million tonnes are lying idle. The
per capita consumption of paper in India is about 13 kg, which is much lower
than world average (58 kg). The Indian paper industry is in a fragmented
structure, consisting of small, medium and large paper mills having capacity
ranging from 05 to 1500 tonnes per day. These units use wood and agro residues
as well as recovered paper as raw material.
Paper & Paperboard Segment: Indigenous paper and paper board segment
produces all the main varieties of paper that are in demand in the market viz.,
writing and printing (38 per cent), packaging grade paper (53 per cent),
newsprint (8 per cent) and speciality paper. However, certain speciality paper
such as coated paper, security papers and cheque paper, etc., are being imported
in the country.
Newsprint: The newsprint sector in the country is governed by the
Newsprint Control Order (NCO), 2004. The mills listed under the schedule of
this order are exempt from excise duty, subject to actual user condition. At
present, there are 123 mills registered under the Schedule to the NCO. However,
only 64 are producing newsprint making the operating installed capacity 2.52
million tonnes per annum. 23 mills have closed operations since being listed in
the NCO and 36 mills have discontinued the production of newsprint. Nearly
half of the newsprint demand in the country is met by imports.
Salt Industry: India continues to hold 3 rd position in the production of salt
in the world after China and USA with annual production of 291.92 lakh tonnes
and second largest producer of iodized salt, next to China. From an era of
shortfall and import at the time of independence, the country has made
spectacular progress due to pragmatic policies in short time, sufficiency was
achieved (1953) and made a dent in the export market. Since then the country
has never looked back.