Make in India: Centre constitutes joint task force to identify vital chemicals

By Amit Kumar
New Delhi [India], May 18 : The Centre has set up a joint task force under the Chairmanship of Srivari Chandrashekar, Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology for identifying vital chemicals that will be produced by India.
Government sources told ANI that the task force was created after the May 4 meeting with petroleum and petrochemicals industries under the chairmanship of Union Chemical Fertiliser Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
"The Chairman of the task force is Dr. Srivari Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Science and Technology. Dr. Anjan Ray, Director, Indian Institute of Petroleum is the Convenor and the members are CMD, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, CMD, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, KK Srivastava, Director, DCPC Prabh Das, HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd. Ajay Shah, Sr. Vice President, Reliance Industries Ltd.," added the government sources.
The sources also told ANI that the task force may invite stakeholders, experts, and special invitees for giving their inputs as and when required.
The task force is to identify the basic chemicals to be used by downstream industry, especially chemicals, to prioritize 20-25 chemicals that are currently imported and can be produced through value addition in the by-products of petroleum and petrochemical
industry/refinery and also to earmark the refineries/petrochemical industries for these chemicals, To identify the research areas, technical development activities and tag oil companies with R&D institutions, wherever required and also to identify bottlenecks in ease of doing business, including policy measures and regulatory clearances, etc.
Government sources further told ANI that the joint task force will convene the meeting weekly/fortnightly.
The first report will be presented before Chemical and Fertiliser Minister Mansukh Mandaviya within a month of its constitution.