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Abstract:
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Paper industry is one of the oldest and largest industries in
Kerala. Despite the developments in the industry in terms of
growth in output , value added and employment generation, many of
the units face grave problems. Irrespective of the size of the
plant, the problems of the industry are general in nature. The
problems are galore in the supply, not the demand side. Amomg the
problems, the important ones are: raw material scarcity, energy
deficiency and obsolete technology. Further, the industry is
subject to many controls by the Government — price control,
product control and raw materials control — which result in the
dwindling of profits and investments. Equally important are the
reservations against the industry for polluting the environment byeffluent disposal on the one hand and affecting ecological balance
by depleting the existing forest on the other.
Apart from the large, medium and small pulp and paper mills,
there are about 30 hand made paper units in Kerala which can be
categorised as village and cottage industry. Almost all of these
units began at the initiative and support of Khadi and Village
Industries Commission. The primary purpose of these units is
employment generation, and not profit making. Currently many of
these units are in the red and many others are on the verge of
closure. Therefore, a separate analysis of the growth
performance, and problems and prospects of the hand made paper
industry has also been attempted. It is analysed separately
because of the very small size of the hand made paper units |