THE Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, CODISSIA, is the largest and most active of its kind in India. It has a membership of more than 5,600 industries, and its activities are varied organising international industrial and agricultural trade fairs, promoting skill development programmes, encouraging budding entrepreneurs, sorting out industrial problems with the government, arranging loan melas with the help of nationalised banks, offering consultancy services, and so on.
The association was started in 1969 with 49 members. According to C. Muthusami, president, the basic aim of the association is to encourage small and budding entrepreneurs to set up their own industrial units by providing them technical assistance, getting them statutory clearances, addressing their grievances and obtaining for them a fair deal from large industries.
With the shortage of skilled manpower troubling the engineering, foundry and textile industries of Coimbatore, CODISSIA recently started a skills development programme. As many as 260 boys are now receiving training under the programme in skills such as moulding, core-making and pattern-making. The boys undergo training for six months in foundries. They are paid a stipend of Rs.2,000 and a monthly house rent allowance of Rs.200.
If the scheme is successful, we will extend it to train CNC machine-operators, fitters, welders and tailors. We also want to extend the programme to the construction industry, said Muthusami.
A minimum of two CNC machines are commissioned every day as industries are upgrading their machinery. There is a shortage of CNC machine-operators. If the Industrial Training Institutes could start a programme with the help of the government or assistance from CODISSIA, we would have skilled CNC machine-operators in about a years time, he said.
Apart from this, CODISSIA is playing a major role in forging partnerships between industries and academic institutions. It has signed a memorandum of understanding with 19 engineering colleges in and around Coimbatore. We want to gain theoretical knowledge [in designs] from the academic institutions and provide practical training to their students in the industries, he explained.
T.S. SubramanianCOMMents
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