Danfoss India is expecting 2019 to be better than earlier years. Without sharing numbers, Ravichandran Purushothaman, President, Danfoss India, told BusinessLine that the company registered strong double-digit growth in 2018. Sectors such as food and food processing, home chain infrastructure, earth moving equipment and energy have done reasonably well. The downside was due to the poor pick up in the capex cycle and the banking system.
“2019 is expected to be better. The capex cycle is very close to pick up. The capacity utilisation of cement has gone up and we expect bank lending to go up. It’s an election year,” he added.
Commenting on food loss, he said the cold chain capacity has grown from 30 million tonnes to 38 million tonnes. “Food policies are aggressive. The TN government has been aiding farmers with good agricultural practices.
Banana loss has fallen by half in the last two years from a high of 18-20 per cent. There is a lot of improvement in pre and post-harvest practices such as grading, sorting and so on.
Further, Tamil Nadu’s agro-climatic conditions are favourable for bananas. There is still lots to be done as only 30 to 35 per cent of the bananas are ripened in a scientific way. Certification is mandatory for export. “Tamil Nadu incidentally does not have an APEDA certified lab. We hope to have one soon,” he said.
Purushothaman emphasised on the need for roping in the younger generation into farming. “We have a number of agro climatic zones in the country and multiple technological interventions as well. The mindset has to change. Value addition to agriculture produce is the way forward. If we do not change the way of agriculture, give it an industry status, we will not progress,” he said.
“Forty per cent of the start-ups are focussed on agriculture and food processing. But bank lending has been a huge challenge for small companies. The cost of doing business is still “pretty high” in India. There is need for intervention to bring down the cost,” Purushothaman said.
He was in the city to inaugurate the new wind tunnel centre at PSG College of Technology here.
The centre, established in collaboration with the National Aeronautics Laboratory, Bengaluru, has been developed to conduct aerodynamic research and experiments for automotive, aerospace, aerodynamic civil construction and specific consumer products.
Source:- The Hindu Business Line