The Federation of Industrial and Commercial Organisation (FICO) president, Gurmeet Singh Kular, along with secretary Rajeev Jain and other members of the body met the Commerce, Industry and Civil Aviation Minister, Suresh Prabhu, in New Delhi on Wednesday. They apprised minister about China cycle industry entering India through PBS bicycles. Besides, delegates discussed several other industry-related issues with the minister, which included hike in steel prices, upgradation of Ludhiana airport and technology fund scheme among other things.
“The steel prices have risen by Rs 15,000 to 20,000 per tonne, which is totally unjustified for the MSMEs. Micro and small industry is incurring huge loses nationally and internationally,” said Kular.
“As previous orders are pending, industry has to purchase steel and iron at new prices, which means incurring losses,” he added.
“Ludhiana is the financial capital of Punjab and Manchester of India. The town is hub of textile, hosiery, bicycle and sewing machine industries. Products of all these industries are sold all over India and exported globally,” said Kular and Jain.
“Unfortunately, the Ludhiana airport is in miserable condition. The city needs frequent flights to New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore as industry representative have to travel frequently. At least three flights are required to and fro from the city to Delhi,” they added.
“FICO has taken two successful delegations to China for exhibitions ‘China Plas 2018’ and ‘The China International Bicycle and Motor Fair 2018’ in April and May, respectively. Numerous bicycles dumped on road sides in China are now being exported to our country by companies, including Orange, OFO, MoBike, which are into public bike sharing (PBS),” they said. “FICO is not against the PBS, but dumping these Chinese bikes in India will result in closure of indigenous bicycle manufacturers. The government should look into the matter and stop dumping of cheap Chinese PBS bicycles in India,” added Kular and Jain.

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