OF

THE MUMBAI REGIONAL CENTRE

(www.iichemrc.org)

Volume1 Issue 8 November 2002

While the traffic to MRC’s website continues to grow at a healthy pace, the same unfortunately cannot be said about the members’ general enthusiasm as evident by the poor attendance at our programmes. The response to my appeal 2 months back to furnish data for compiling a Members Directory has been rather dismal, with the figure so far not even touching double digits. Increasing the membership base and sustaining the interest of the existing members are the two primary challenges before our organisation. A variety of programmes have been lined up in the months ahead and we look forward to a more active participation by our members.

With the New Year just a few weeks away, I urge upon each one of you to include the following in your New Year Resolutions and more importantly act upon it

1. To bring in at least one new member during the year
2. Furnish your particulars for the Members Directory, especially your e-mail address
3. Attend atleast one of the three programmes lined up between Dec 26^th 2002 to Jan 29^th 2003.

K.Sahasranaman

The Honorable Petroleum Minister of India is active in introducing Alcohol in Petrol. In Phase 1 the Government notified sale of petrol blended with 5% Ethanol from January 1, 2003 in the nine major sugarcane growing states. In Phase 2, Petrol blended with 5% Ethanol will be supplied all over the country from September 2003. In Phase 3, percentage of Ethanol would be raised from 5% to 10%. The above approach is going to create a spurt in consumption of Ethanol from 2003 onwards. The price of Ethanol available to industry manufacturing Alco Chemicals like Ethylene, acetic acid, Ethylene Glycol, etc., is going to increase. This may create a downward journey for the Alco Chemical Industry as they will find it difficult to compete with petroleum based products. Already some of the large Alco Chemical units are closed. Above is going to create problems for the Alco Chemical industry unless they have their own Captive Alcohol manufacturing units.

At the same time Indian petroleum refining industry spearheaded by Indian Oil is executing the projects on Lumpsum Turnkey basis as compared to the conventional EPC routeduring earlier days. The entire Panipat Refinery, which was engineered indigenously, is now being expanded through LSTK mode. The contractors are generally Koreans and in some cases L&T. When the Korean Contracting organizations win the Lumpsum Turnkey award, the engineering of these projects is being done in Korea whereas same could have been done in India, by the local engineering contractors. On one hand the foreign exchange is being paid for the engineering services as part of the Lumpsum Turnkey Contract whereas Indian Engineering Contractors in Process Industry having more than 10,000 people are struggling for getting proper projects as the investment scenario in India is pretty dismal. Lumpsum Turnkey mode of execution drives the project to a higher Capital Cost as compared to conventional EPC mode of execution. Thus the authorities need to look in to the mode of execution of these projects so that Indian Engineering Contractors can survive. In countries like Malaysia, China, Iran, etc. the Detailed Engineering for all projects not withstanding the mode of implementation is required to be carried out by local engineering contractors. Why not in India?

D.P.Misra

Mumbai Regional Centre had the honour of hosting the National Council Meeting on 9^th Nov. This gave an opportunity for the Executive Committee Members to interact formally and informally with the members of the National Council. A presentation was made to the Council Members highlighting the achievements of MRC during the last year and also the forthcoming events and programmes. On his part, the President of IIChE, Prof S.K.Sharma shared his thoughts relating to the functioning of IIChE during the past eleven months.

A summary of the points made by the President is as follows:

• Membership growth is low and is a matter of great concern
• Regional centres have to be vibrant and visible. The national body is only as good as its regional centres
• One way to improve visibility is to have more lectures and programmes
• IIChE is having a on-going collaboration with AIChE, which is valid for 3 years and is renewable
• A theme should be selected for every year
• IIChE needs to have a long term perspective and must have forums in academia and R&D
• IIChE must have MOUs with industry/institutions; we have one with CLRI, the same should be extended to FICCI, CII etc
• IIChE is preparing a monograph on materials and the similar ones are planned on safety, nanotechnology
• IIChE has no say on policy planning have no say at the national level in the ministry – this needs to be corrected
• IIChE’s position on various matters needs to be ventilated and published. We can act as a lobby
• The web page of IIChE should carry resumes of members seeking employment and also experts, whose expertise can be tapped by anyone globally
• IIChE is a member of ‘World Chemical Engineering council’ by invitation.
• IIChE is a founding member of Engineering Council of India and is on the governing body
• PE qualification should be looked into and IIChE should develop a modality
• Bureau of energy efficiency is being reconstituted and IIChE will try to get an important role
• At the national level, not more than 2 council members should be on any committee, the rest should be from the regional centres.
• 24 awards have been instituted by IIChE for young scientists and students

Report compiled by Dr.Ganeshan

Mr.Raghav Narsalay, a consulting economist and a leading expert on WTO related matters delivered an interesting lecture on the above topic at UICT on Nov.22^nd. A summary of his lecture follows.

The objective of most businesses today is to produce a globally competitive product / service and make profits. This essentially depends on the costs associated with Raw Materials and Technology, value as well as volumes of concerned products at various levels and the performance of the industry internationally.

• Location of Raw material and Technology supplier
• Timing of purchase or sale
• Quantity of purchase or selling
• Import Tariff Policy of the Government
• Changing consciousness of society with respect to raw material as well as processes being used in production
• Technology and Technology Absorption
• Subsidies provided by the State for production of Raw Materials
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Costs associated with Infrastructure
• Innovation leading to better quality and price reduction
• Standards
• Flexibility with respect to production processes, specially in case of exports
• Destination of the final product
• Exchange rate related import competition
• Tariff Rates of importing countries
• Processes that trigger change in standards of importing countries
• Subsidies provided by the State for final products
• Anti-competitive behaviour of other firms such as predatory pricing

Dec.19th to 22nd	CHEMCON-2002 at Hyderabad
Dec 26th	Lecture on ‘Computational Fluid Dynamics – A Powerful Tool for Reactor Design and Analysis’, by Prof.Rodney Fox of Iowa State University at UICT 6.30 pm followed by dinner for members + spouse. Free registration is necessary.
Jan 11th 2003	Seminar on Safety, Health and Environment Management in Indian Chemical Industry at Hotel Grand Maratha Sheraton.
Jan 29th 2003	Dr.R.B.Roy Choudhary Memorial Lecture, by Mr.K.Venkatramanan, President, Larsen & Toubro