GOVERNMENT APPROVES IT-BASED
INFORMATION DISSEMINATION PLAN FOR TEA INDUSTRY
LOK SABHA
The government has
approved implementation of an IT based information dissemination
programme as a major step towards reorienting the tea industry
in India in the changed global scenario and as part of a medium
term export strategy for the commodity. Accordingly, the Tea Board
has prepared an IT Plan for implementation over the next 5 years,
with a capital outlay of Rs. 9.93 crore. The core activity under
the Plan is the setting up of a "Tea Portal" to disseminate vital
information across various segments of the industry, covering
areas like market profiles, exporter rating, production, quality
control, statistics, research & development, trade-related
information, taxation/duty structure, schemes, notifications,
weather data, latest news and most crucially, domestic auction
and international prices.
In order to provide real time information on prices, the Plan
envisages the capture of trends at the weekly tea auctions across
various centres in the country and instant dissemination of the
same through the Tea Portal. To streamline this activity, the
Government has given the nod to the Tea Board for E-trading of
tea at all the licensed auction centres within the current year.
A provision of nearly Rs. 4.30 crore has been made in the IT Plan
for auction centre infrastructure alone. It is expected that this
would lead to greater transparency at the auctions and efficient
price discovery in the primary market.
The IT Plan provides for information dissemination in remote locations,
such as plantation areas inhabited by small growers and relatively
unconnected through the traditional means of communication. The
Tea Portal would also strive to address their needs on farm technology
through IT based extension as well as query handling. Ultimately,
it would provide a common platform to all segments of the tea
industry to share their experiences for mutual benefit.
The IT Plan also envisages the establishment of an efficient data
collection mechanism, as well as timely collation and publication
of the same through the Tea Portal. A dedicated IT cell is sought
to be put in
place in the Tea Board for the smooth operation of the Plan and
for achieving the desired objectives. Government expects that
the entire infrastructure will be in place before March 2004.
While the Tea Board would bear the initial cost of the initiative,
the Tea Portal would aim to become self-sustaining with the support
of the tea industry.
The factors responsible for the faltering tea exports from the
country were lack of information flow to the international buyers
about Indian tea and inadequate feedback on foreign markets to
Indian tea producers. It was, therefore, felt necessary to leverage
the advances made in Internet technology to disseminate useful
and requisite information to all the stakeholders in the tea industry.
