Paint industry to establish council to address skills gap

Indian Paints Association (IPA) has proposed National Skill Development Corporation to establish a ‘Sector Skill Council’ for the coatings industry to address its skill gaps.`

Jayakumar Krishnaswamy, President of IPA and MD of Akzo Nobel India, said that the proposal identified 20 skill sets of which 14 relate to the employees working in the paints-manufacturing units. “The balance six relate to individuals working outside the industry (the painters), but who have a tremendous impact on the performance of the coatings manufactured”, he said.

The proposed council would act as an enabler for enhancing the delivery mechanism for promoting the skills sets.

Some 1.6 million painters are available today for non-industrial coating applications.

“With the industry foreseeing a consumption growth of 10 per cent, it could be estimated that 1.5 lakh additional skilled painters would be required every year for applications”, Krishnaswamy added.

The Council would also set the standards for imparting skills sets to both the existing and new workforce joining the paint industry. “The existing training institutes including ITI's and other private institutes would be actually imparting the skills training”, he explained.

During 2013-14, the overall production of paints in the country was about 3,115 million litres having achieved a growth of around 6 per cent over the previous year. In value terms, its revenue grew 12 per cent to Rs 31,360 crore last year.

The overall per capita consumption of paints is estimated to be 2.6 kgs a year, of which two kgs are the per capita consumption in the decorative paints and the balance is for industrial use.

The Governments plan for smart cities and growth as well in realties have made the industry hopeful of improvement in the decorative paints going forward.

Growth in automotive industry, which consumes nearly 45 per cent of industrial paints, has the potential to generate demand.

A fall in interest rates and stable fuel prices might improve sales, IPA president pointed out. IPA saw opportunity for growth in corrosion resistant paints segment.