Discussions were held on removing the bottlenecks and progressive regulatory measures to safeguard the environment
CropLife India and FICCI jointly organised a webinar on ’The Importance of Safety in Manufacturing: Indian Crop Protection Industry,’ operation and execution of production change management. The Chief Guest on the occasion was Samir Kumar Biswas, Additional Secretary (Chemicals), Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India.
The webinar witnessed the release of the FICCI Compendium on covid relief initiatives of the crop protection industry. The panel discussion one highlighted risk awareness, safety takeaways and pathways to overcome industrial challenges, issues related to policy and governance; operational practices; internal and external environment and resources.
Panel discussion two talked about the potential strategies for a way forward discussed the prospective strategies and role of key stakeholders viz. regulator, academia and the industry.
The webinar observed the participation of speakers both from India and the global agrochemical industry, viz. Dr KC Ravi, Chairman, CropLife India and Chief Sustainability Officer – Syngenta; Raju Kapoor, Director, Public & Industry Affairs, FMC India; Geetali Thakur, HSE Head, Deccan Fine Chemicals; Lalit Gabhane, Director General, National Safety Council of India; Dr Roman Prochazka, Global Head for EHS, Agricultural Solutions, BASF; Pradeep Jain, President – Operations, PI Industries; Alok Chandra, Vice President- HR & Corporate Sustainability (EHS & CSR), Rallis India; Robert Stanton, Head Product Supply APAC, Bayer CropScience; Rahul Raman, Director, Kaypear Consulting; Mahesh Chandak, Head of HSE – South Asia, Bayer Group; Sandeep Vichare, Tolling Production Manager Lead- South Asia, Syngenta; Umesh Dhake, Regional Manager- Asia Pacific & Middle East, Centre of Chemical Process Safety (CCPS); Rajeev Marwah, Independent consultant for chemical industry; Sianghee Tan, Executive Director, CropLife Asia and Manoj Mehta, Director & Head – Chemicals, Petrochemicals and Civil Aviation, FICCI.
Biswas said, “The agrochemical industry contributes heavily towards the food security and provides employment to a large workforce and has been a champion sector as of its exports, next only to the pharmaceutical industry; which has been receiving its due share of ‘Ease of Doing Business’ while removing bottlenecks and progressive regulatory measures to safeguard the environment.”
RG Agarwal, Chairman FICCI – Crop Protection Committee and Group Chairman, Dhanuka Agritech said, “Although IT systems have helped evolve the safety of the agrochemical plants; skill enhancement and continuous training of the workforce, both by the government and the industry are the needs of the hour, which would further elevate the levels of safety in the industry.”
Asitava Sen, CEO, CropLife India said, “The cross-industry discussions have highlighted the diversity of implementation practices in the industry towards safety and the challenges encountered in implementing and maintaining effective management of change programmes; and has served as a platform for sharing evolving best practices.”
