Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Dec 30 : Union Minister of State (Ind Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today disclosed that the Jammu region will soon have three Bamboo Clusters which will boost the ‘Start-Ups’.
Across the country, the Minister said, Bamboo Start-ups are going to play a crucial role in India’s future economy by opening up new opportunities of livelihood. He was addressing the National Workshop on “Bamboo Development Mission” organised by NITI Aayog at Vigyan Bhawan here.
Vice Chairman Niti Aayog, Rajiv Kumar and CEO Niti Aayog, Amitabh Kant also spoke on the occasion.
It is an irony, said, that bamboo has been in our midst for centuries together but we never realised its importance, as a result of which, all the bamboo from India was being taken away by other countries who would in turn develop bamboo products including Agarbatti and sell back to us. Contrary to popular belief, bamboo is not found only in Northeast but also in other parts of the country including Jammu, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra etc, Dr Singh added.
Singh said that Bamboo could be a key pillar of ‘Agri-Start-ups’ due to its versatile properties and multiple beneficiary uses in the form of Agarbatti, pillar, fencing, housing, household products, raw materials of crafts, pulp, paper, boards, fabrics industry, fuel, fodder, charcoal, healthy foods, pickle, garments, socks, jewelry, tooth brush, medicine etc.
The precious natural commodity of Bamboo can be used for making bio-ethanol, which would reduce dependence on imported fossil fuel, thereby helping in achieving the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat in the petroleum sector as well, said the Minister.
Referring to the huge unexplored business opportunities in Bamboo sector, Singh said, a path-breaking decision was taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to exempt home grown bamboo from the purview of the 100-year-old Indian Forest Act, which helped in bringing ease of doing business in the bamboo sector for the young entrepreneurs. He also pointed out that by increasing the import duty on bamboo sticks/ Agarbatti from 10% to 25%, the domestic Agarbatti manufacturing got a huge boost as nearly 5 to 6 thousand crores of Agarbatti was imported every year from countries like Korea, Vietnam and China. But, there has been no import of raw batti since September 2019 and local bamboo produce is being used for this, he added.
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