By IANS
London : Rural India is ripe for investment – this was the message sent out by top business leaders from India who met their British counterparts at a session of the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) Forum here Tuesday.
The two sides discussed the challenges before rural India as also ways to prevent food wastage – amounting to 40 percent of produce – mainly on account of lack of infrastructure, cold storage and processing facility.
"Rural India provides unprecedented opportunities for investment in infrastructure, cold chain, supply chain linking rural produce to urban Indian and international consumers," CBC director general Mohan Kaul told the forum.
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president Sunil Mittal said Indian efforts to set up an efficient cold chain and processing facility will not only prevent wastage but also allow India's agricultural produce to be turned into value-added products.
As of today, only one percent is converted to value added products.
"The UK must come and play a significant role," Mittal said.
"The effort can be a collaborative one. India is witnessing a consumer revolution. There are opportunities and challenges here and the UK industry can play an important role, especially in building cold chains. You do not need to own land but invest in process industry and contract farming."
Kaul said that Indian industry had become involved in rural development: "This is the proof for British industry that rural India is ripe for investment," he added.
CII Director General Tarun Das, employing soccer terms, said, "We have lived through a process where the industry was busy defending business as goalkeepers, then we became defenders and now we are centre-forwards."
He urged the Indo-British Partnership Network (IBPN) to play help facilitate investment from British industry into India.
India today is a world leader the production of food grains, fruits and vegetables, cattle, milk and egg. But the country accounts for less than 1.5 percent of international food trade.