Micro-Concrete Roofing Technology India Business Forum -I
Shrashtant Patara

The last two years have seen a rapid spread of Micro Concrete Roofing Technology in India.  With over 80 MCR production units and approximately 4 million MCR tiles on roofs throughout the country, MCR is poised to enter the large-scale dissemination phase.

Development Alternatives believes that a technology will sustain itself only if it is appropriated by a network of government bodies, development organisations, research institutions, business groups, industry, building material producers and consumers.  So, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation and in collaboration with the Swiss Centre for Development Co-operation in Technology and Management (SKAT), DA set out to establish an Indian MCR Business Network.

The effectiveness of such a network ultimately lies in the ability of its members to profit from playing an active role.  DA invited a range of potential Network partners to share this vision and take part in the Micro Concrete Roofing Technology - India Business Forum -I held in Jhansi (U.P.) on Friday January 31 and Saturday February 1, 1997.

The Business Forum was designed to be highly interactive and facilitate the establishment of links between potential network partners.  It was structured into a series of sessions covering the aspects where support service providers can play an active and profitable role. 

The objectives of the MCR Business Forum were, firstly, to achieve a common understanding of where we stood and where we were headed, and to answer everyone’s questions to his satisfaction.  Secondly, it was necessary to define the strategy for moving forward with the involvement of NGOs, cement companies and entrepreneurs, to build support systems and identify those partners who could contribute.  At the outset, the participants put up their expectations from the Forum and their possible role in the MCR Network, with the understanding that this would be developed and refined in the course of the Forum.

The first session familiarised participants with the current status of MCR Technology. Mr. Heini Mueller, an international MCR consultant, illustrated how drastically the potential of an infant technology can be misread by relating an anecdote about how an advisor to Henry Ford predicted that the horse was with us to stay but the automobile was only a novelty - it would fade!  He highlighted the fact that new building materials have a lot of potential in economically developing countries.  He reiterated that the strength of MCR is that it can tap all market segments; it is aesthetic; it is a real alternative to existing materials.  By using local materials it also saves on foreign exchange. 

Going further into details, the National MCR Reference Centre co-ordinator, Shrashtant Patara said that there were 80 operational units in India, mostly in UP, MP and Bihar with a ripple effect  in neighbouring regions.  The scene was promising in South India and in the North East as well.

He showed slides illustrating the complete Tilemaker Kit, and samples of MCR tiles and roofs describing how their price would be significantly lower than ACC and CGI sheets and just below Mangalore tiles.  The project had also shown that MCR being good business, it is easy to replicate  in large numbers - this is the pillar of MCR success. 

Participants spent the afternoon on a field trip to TARAcrete MCR production unit and visiting some of the roofs installed in that area.

After this field experience, the participants were better able to seek information on various aspects of MCR technology liberation process such as:

Dr. Arun Kumar of Development Alternatives’ Technology Systems Branch took up the various issues and stated that marketing the MCR technology required documentation and technical information as inputs.  There was no objection to the machine to be copied by manufacturers other than TARA.  In fact, the drawings of the machine could be made available.  In the development of entrepreneurships, ‘finance’ continued to be a weak link.

Mr. S.K. Lamba of Development Alternatives emphasised the need for technical support providers without whom the enterprises and hence, the technology could fail.

Training appeared to be an obvious area of strength of NGOs.  Mr. S.K.Gupta of TARA-BKF, a nation-wide franchise company, described the on-going development of a CD-ROM package that focussed on ‘from show-how’ to ‘know-how’ to ‘know-why’.  He also explained the modalities of the franchisee operations designed by TARA-BKF.

Mr. Padhee of Gram Vikas identified the strong role NGOs could play in technology dissemination and awareness generation.
 

Role Definition in MCR Network

Mr. Manu Verma of Holtec engineers, who had just completed an extensive market potential study on MCR, organised an exercise that would indicate how a type of organisation would come into the Network. Participants wrote down their preferences in terms of possible roles on a chart. (Please see box below).

Evaluating the results, Dr. Arun Kumar reinforced the need to be concentrating on second-generation entrepreneurs and not exclude NGO supported enterprises. He observed that finance was still a weak area. On  standards, quality and R&D, a lot of organisations were available for these activities and their competences should be drawn on so that, with regard to standards etc,malpractices did not creep in.

In marketing, he stressed that it would be appropriate to draw on the experience of COMTRUST, the largest Mangalore tile company in Kerala to achieve the numbers that were being talked about. 

He was concerned that there was no breakthrough in technical support services, and felt that this point could not be underplayed.  The impact of 10 successes can be negated by one failure, and many failures were on a technical account.

Dr. Arun Kumar summarised the results of the deliberations and discussions of the two day long Forum.  In his overall assessment, the Business Forum had been a pioneering effort and an important stride forward.  In 3-4 years it would be known what bearing its decisions would have had on the technology.

The working sessions of the Business Forum closed with participants making commitments on what they would do in MCR technology over the next six months.

The closing session was graced by the presence of Shri T.N.Gupta , Executive Director of the Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council , Govt. of India .  In welcoming him,  Dr. Ashok Khosla, President of DA talked about its work for sustainable livelihoods.  He said that in working closely with several different organisations, it was essential that all partners worked together.

Mr. T.N.Gupta said that BMTPC was created when it was realised that the Government had invested substantially in R&D for building materials as a national activity.  It was being carried out by several institutions but the technologies were confined to the institution walls. The role of BMTPC is to take the technologies from the lab to the land.

Any new technology faces two risks: technological and marketing.  Because all clients, big and small must be able to believe in Appropriate Technologies, BMTPC is trying to set national standards and establish specifications to reduce the technological risk factor.  Induction of the materials in Government schedules mitigates the marketing risk.  The private entrepreneur, he said, must be assured of risk-freedom.  BMTPC provides both policy support and fiscal support.  He saw it as his moral responsibility to ensure the success of MCR, a technology validated by BMTPC.   q

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