Bangalore: Minister for Large and Medium Industries Katta Subramanya Naidu released the third and enlarged edition of the Industrial Directory of Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) here on Monday. It lists close to 10,000 industries including ancillary providers and major private and public sector manufacturers.

KASSIA president R. Prithviraj said that the updated directory had been designed to help in identifying supply sources, providing potential buyers multiple choice for procurement and locating the closest source.

"Small industries can also use the directory to plan joint production strategies, form trade consortia, develop networking in similar sectors and go for bulk purchase of inputs,'' he said at an interactive meeting attended by member industries from several districts.

"The directory can also be used to reduce investment in machinery for making more use of the idle capacity in some units and outsourcing and industries can also upgrade technology through closer interaction'' he said.

Mr. Naidu released the Certificate of Origin for non-tariff items made by industries and are useful to exporters and importers. KASSIA is one among the four trade bodies in the country authorised by the Union Government for this certification.

Certification process

The need for decentralisation of the certification process was felt because of the increasing number of exporters in the small- scale sector and the increasing quantity of consignments.

KASSIA can now issue Certificates of Origin to about 30,000 industries in the Bangalore metropolitan area including areas such as Yeshwantpur, Peenya, Rajajinagar, Kamakshipalya, Kumbalgod and adjacent industrial clusters.

Industry representatives told the Minister about their problems such as slow release of subsidies by the Government and lack of adequate space in the industrial areas of Bangalore Rural District and Mysore and those related to help for technology upgradation by small industries.

The members said KSSIDC and KIADB were going slow on creating new industrial areas and space for expanding existing ones.Along with marketing assistance, more industrial areas would both create new jobs and earn more tax revenue for the Government, they said. The industries demanded that a quarterly round table meeting be held to review the progress of schemes for small industries.

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