Part 10 (2/2)
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We require the will to take action and to commit ourselves to be one of the key world leaders at least in these thirteen materials areas within a decade .Once there is a will ,mission of Indian origin who have set up or run giant metal companies around the world.
India can generate many more such entrepreneurs and help them to establish such endeavors on the native soil.The vision can be easily within our reach. Materials are crucial to several other sectors that follow: engineering industries Electronics and communications chemicals biotechnologyand strategic industries .Strengths in material technologies are crucial for the agrofood processing and agriculture sectors covered earlier. If India loses out on this crucial materials front, then the future of many sectors would be doubtful. If we master it ,we have a bright future for our people.
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Chapter 6.
Chemical Industries and Our Biological wealth Deliverance ?where is this Deliverance to be found?
Our master himself has joyfully Taken upon Him the bonds of creation He is bound with us all for ever.
Rabindranath Tagore The use of chemicals and chemical products affects our lives in several ways, direct and indirect. Fertilizers and pesticides are needed for food security.Drugs and pharmaceuticals relieve pain and save million of lives. petrol, diesel,natural gas and plastic have become an essential part of modern living. There are several household items we take for granted .salt,soaps,detergents ,cosmetics,beverages,packed foods,paints,textiles,leather goods,books,newspapers,and so on.Modern chemical engineering facilities these comforts and tools for knowledge which keep improving the quality of life.at the same time,the manufacture of these chemicals also creates the challenge of ensuring a clean and healthy environment.
Chemical modern demons?
Well ,what about air pollution?what about soils degraded by salination?what about the chemical Effluents which have polluted our beautiful rivers and lakes, and endangered marine life?what about carcinogenic chemicals and the ban on these by developed countries (to be followed later by the developing countries)?In view of the Bhopal gas tragedy,we need to remember how chemical pollution can be responsible for enomous loss of human life.
Aside from the damage caused by such accidents is the deliberate use of chemical engineering to wreak destruction.It was modern chemical engineering that gave us the napalm bomb ,used extensively in the Vietnam war.The threat of more dreadful chemical weapons has been looming over humanity for a long time:it is only recently that a treaty for banning chemical weapons has been 111.
signed.However we spearheaded a movement to eliminate such weapons and India is the pioneering signatory to a treaty to this purpose .we are with the international community on this where there is no discrimination between nation nations,in contrast to the case of nuclear weapons .Let us also not forget that the deadly bombs used by terrorists are the products of modern chemistry a.s.sisted by multidisciplinary technologies of packaging ,electronics and communications ,among others.
Yes,we want to repeat this again:just as in every other field of human activity ,science and technology also can be used for wrong purpose. Accidents can occur as our knowledge is an outcome of trials and corrected errors.But,barring the occasional case of lack of ethics on the part of scientist or business group,if the ill effects are at the time of developmentof a product or a process, that activity will be abandoned. present day technologies allow for many accelerated and simulated tests.The fact of the matter is that at no time in human history have the benefits of knowledge been as widely available to a large number of persons as in second half of the twentieth century. when we look back at previous centuries ,it is striking that the benefits of new creations ,inventions and therapies (in art ,literature ,science,medicine,in techniques and technologies )were available only to a privileged few. There were several economic constraints: production levels and production techniques were such that the amount of 'surplus' wealth created was no great. Therefore, the good things of life were confined to the rich and powerful.A vast majority of people worked unceasingly to create the small surplus.This was true not only for India,but all over the world. In early times he artisians' skiils were preserved by their guilds or held as a family secret.The products that they manufactured were,however sold over a large geographic region. A crossfertilization of various skiils and disciplines took place.It is this rich heritage build up over several countries,that has led to the odern technological revolution.Builiding on past successes,and failures,humanity entered the wentieth century with a greatly enhanced knowledge pool. It was the age of the internal combustion engine.This invention marked a major step towards ma.s.s production.Newer inventions invoved more complex technologies, process and production methods.They required ma.s.s production to derive the advantages of economies of scale.The 'surplus'
wealth created was great enough to share with more and more people who were involved in the production process.The ma.s.s produced goods could reach the people at an 112.
ffordable pricethe rapid growth also created more jobs ,salaries enabled people to buy more commodities.For example,affordable bicycles improved the mobility of rural people.people could sell and buy goods with great ease,thus creating economic opportunities.Many villagers go to work by cycle.The transistor radio provides information and entertainment to millions.At an even more prosaic level,ma.s.sproduced cups and saucers enable many thousands to set up small tea shops in every nook of the country.Thus ,in short,is a glimpse of how improved technologies have helped and are helping large ma.s.ses of people.Chemical technology is one such means to improve the quality of life.Knowledge in this field has increased to the point where chemical technologies can be made 'clean'.Again this background,let us look at the chemical sector of Technology Vision 2020.Chemical industries and our biological wealth Chemical industryeconomy linkages The development pattern of the chemical process industry can be divided into three phases: penetration, consolidation, and speciality.
In the penetration phase, the chemical products which protect crops and improve health (agroproducts, fertilizers and pharmaceuticals), contributed to economic and social advances. In the consolidation phase, resourcerich countries geared up to meet domestic demand as well as exports. Poor countries imported basic foodstock and converted it into finished goods, emphasis was placed on the manufacture and marketing of speciality chemicals.
It is natural that, given the technology involved in their manufacture, the maximum value addition occurs in these.The interlinkages between technology, economy, environment, society and politics have never been more intimate than they are today.
Technological demands have changed rapidly due to changes in the market, the availability of raw materials, environmental concerns, energy requirements and major changes in the policy framework. Existing production technologies have often to be upgraded. No industrial process/production system can ever completely transform the input resources into the desired product. Owing to the inexpensive and abundant availability of raw materials, the emphasis in the past was to isolate the desired product of the purest quality without paying much attention to the waste generated in the process.
For example, in the early years of the sugar industry the focus was on maximizing sugar output. The waste products, except for mola.s.ses, were not used. Even baga.s.se was burnt.
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Nowadays , baga.s.se is used for making paper or for cogeneration of electricity. There are about a dozen chemicals from other wastes such as oxalic acid. Action is under way to recover these byproducts as well.The world chemical industry is one of the most basic and important manufacturing businesses globally. Its total turnover approaches $1000 billion, giving it a size comparable to that of Other large international industries such as automotive, steel, mechanical engineering and electronic industries. The industry's activities are linked to a large number of other industries to which it provides both products and services. Typically, in most countries the chemical industry sells roughly half its turnover to other manufacturing operations rather than directly to the consumer.
These commercial area include other branches of the chemical industry itself, as well as important parts of industries such as consumer products, engineering, defence, automobiles, packaging and construction. This interdependence with so many other industrial branches makes the structure of the industry inherently complex, and underlines its general importance to economic development.
The chemical industry has its most important components in the development world, with Western Europe, j.a.pan, and North America accounting for roughly 70 per cent of the world chemicals production and consumption. The world chemicals market is shown in table 6.1. The Indian share in this is small. However, Indian industries are present in all those sectors, as is apparent from table 6.2. and we also have R&D capabilities in these areas. The Indian chemicals industry has come a long way since the establishment of the first petroleum refinery in the country in 1954, and has gained considerable momentum in the last thirty years. Its pattern of development has been similar to that of the global chemicals industry. The 1980s in fact witnessed the Indian chemicals sector entering a phase of consolidation. But in the course of its development, the industry has displayed several unique features. For example, a bulk of the chemicals in India are still produced in the small sector, a phenomenon not found anywhere else in the world. The coexistence of a number of different feedstocks for manufacture is yet another phenomenon, almost unique to India.
TABLE 6.1.
The World Chemicals Market 114.
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Total sales: $1.2 trillion ________________________________________________________________________.
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Sector Percentage of total sales Petrochemicals 39.0 per cent Pharmaceutical chemicals 16.4 per cent Performance chemicals 16.0 per cent Agrochemicals 11.0 per cent Textiles 9.9 per cent Inorganic chemicals 6.7 per cent Other fine chemicals 1.0 per cent Source: TIFAC, chemicals process industries: Technology Vision 2020 At present the Indian chemical industry occupies a premier position in India's industrial set up. It accounts for nearly 7 percent of the total number of factories in the country, about 12 per cent of the fixed capital, 13 per cent of the gross output and 12 per cent of the net value added in the manufacturing sector. Table 6.2 gives the status of different sectors of the chemical industry. The chemical industry has witnessed the fluctuations of various sectors, as is shown in table 6.3 which gives the sectoral growth pattern of the Indian chemical industry since 1991. The fluctuations are partly due to market forces and partly due to market forces and partly due to changes in tax services. However, the Indian chemical industry and R&D is robust enough to survive these vicissitudes and emerge as an important player at the global level.
The turnover of the Indian chemical industry between the years 1989 and 1994 increased by 158 per cent. During 19941997 the growth was about 80.5 per cent. India 115.
is entering into the polymer sector in a major way and has made beginnings in speciality chemicals. The chemical industry is usually subdivided TABLE 6.2.
Status of different sectors of the chemical industry (198990) Characteristics Basic industrial Fertilizers& Paints& Drugs& Cosmetics& Chemicals pesticides varnishes pharmls toiletries No. of factories 1264 556 820 1699.
787.
No. of workers 58847 62535 24335 82985 43769.
No. of employees 85664 94072 39592 138220.
55015.
Gross output 450933 830049 235290 527925 305567.
Net value added 93496 96892 47863 119485.
44981.
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