TEXTILE RESEARCH ASSOCIATIONS - Ministry of Textiles

a n n u a l r e p o r t 0 4 - 0 5Control Board (GPCB). During the yearunder consideration, the team working onenvironmental issues undertookAdequacy and Efficacy certification for 18industries.MANTRA, in collaboration with M/s KothariInfo Tech Ltd., has developed a softwarefor Computer Colour Matching and hasalso developed a huge data base in thisrespect. Also, MANTRA conducted asurvey on “Waterjet looms” in and aroundSurat. Area-wise catalogue and othertechnical details have been compiled. Thisinformation will be used in a study onproduct planning and development.INDIAN JUTE INDUSTRIESRESEARCH ASSOCIATION(IJIRA), KOLKATAThe Indian Jute Industries ResearchAssociation (IJIRA), Kolkata registeredunder West Bengal Societies RegistrationAct, 1961, is an autonomous CooperativeResearch Organisation mainly funded bythe Ministry of Textiles, Government ofIndia. IJIRA is governed by a Council,headed by the Chairman, assisted by theVice Chairman and 24 members, drawnfrom the Industry, the Government,Eminent Professionals and others. TheDirector is appointed by the Council andis the Principal Executive Officer of theAssociation exercising general power ofsupervision and coordination of overallactivities of the Association and is assistedby a Secretary-cum-Financial Controller.There are nine technical divisions andeach division is supervised by a Head orGroup Leader.The objectives of IJIRA are:(i) To promote research and otherscientific work connected with thejute trade and industries allied withor accessory thereto;(ii) To establish and maintainlaboratories and faster education ofpeople engaged in or likely to beengaged in the said trade andindustry; and(iii) To examine and publish informationregarding the nature and merits ofinventions, improvements materialsand designs connected with the saidtrades of industries.The R&D activities and technology transferprogrammes of IJIRA have helpedimprove the productivity, product qualityand cost viability of the organized jute millsand also the SMEs in the jute sector.Besides taking care of the persistentproblems of organised and decentralizedjute sectors, IJIRA is currently engagedin R&D projects such as (i) E-Library onJute, (ii) Wet Spinning TechnologyServices and (iii) Development of RamiebasedProducts etc.IJIRA has also set up its North EasternRegional Centre in Assam at Guwahati.The Ministry of Textiles has sanctioned thenecessary budgetary provision for NorthEastern Regional Centre & Promotion ofNatural Fibres (Jute, Ramie etc.) basedIndustries in North Eastern Region. IJIRAPowerloom Service Centre (PSC) isrendering services to decentralizedPowerloom Units of Assam for169