Hair exporters in Eluru are witnessing fall in orders due to smuggling across border to China.

1. THURSDAY 30 OCTOBER 2014 02 METRO FARE
ELURU’S
HAIRY TALE
VENU K KODIMELA
Tresses from Eluru is losing its
shine as the famed hair pro-cessing
town is witnessing a
lull in the market due to 40-50 per
cent drop in export orders. Hair-rais-ing
facts emerge when you look into
hair exports.
While India’s contribution to
world market is 60 per cent, a major
chunk of it comes from the Tirumala
Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) as
lakhs of devotees tonsure their
heads at Lord Venkateshwara tem-ple.
The board earned Rs 220 crore
from the sale of tonsured hair last
year. The hair collected here and all
over India is processed at Eluru and
is exported to over 35 countries.
Though India’s exports stand at a
staggering Rs 3,000 crore, its con-tribution
to wigs and value added
Smugglers book orders by train, download
in Assam and route them to China without
paying taxes. Every month 15 to 20 quintals
of hair worth more than Rs 35 lakh is sent to
Assam. The value of goods is under priced
to avoid suspicion at Kacheguda and
Secunderabad Railway Stations
products is meager 0.1 per cent. The
industry experts feel that technolog-ical
superiority has given an edge to
China in the world markets.
KK Gupta, who started Srinivasa
Hair Industries in Eluru way back
in 1983, blames the poor quality of
hair sold in auctions and organised
smuggling across the border for
loss in business. Gupta said the
temple officials were not sensitive
to the demands of market economy.
“The quality of hair is showing a
sharp decline as the auctions are
conducted only after accumulating
huge quantity of stocks. As a result,
hair is damaged as it’s not properly
dried, segregated and combed be-fore
storing. Moreover, the officials
expect hike in its price even if there
is a dip in the market.”
He alleged that, “Smugglers
book orders by train, download in
Assam and route them to China
without paying taxes. Every month
15 to 20 quintals of hair worth more
than Rs 35 lakh is sent to Assam.
The value of goods is under priced
to avoid suspicion at Kacheguda
and Secunderabad Railway Sta-tions.”
Another drawback the industry
faces is lack of technology know-how
for manufacturing wigs, acces-sories
and value added products. A
few entrepreneurs from the State
entered the branded market but they
need the support of the Centre and
AP government to nurture them.
State’s development
guided by science
RAVI P BENJAMIN
The Satellite Data Analysis
and Application Centre of
the College of Engineering
& Technology in Acharya Nagar-juna
University in Guntur district
which was launched in June 2014
has the ability and facility to guide
the State government on myriad
subjects that affect agriculture,
mining, weather, urbanisation, fish-eries
and the economy of the stake-holders.
The centre receives data
from satellite on a plethora of sub-jects
that impacts a State’s econ-omy.
The centre can give advisory
on groundwater levels in any par-ticular
region, identification and
presence of minerals, rural and
urban planning, soil erosion, beach
and coastal erosion and on crop
suitability advise depending upon
soil health and on identification of
fishing zones for the benefit of fish-ermen.
This can help in scientific
development of a State on multiple
fronts. This centre located in ANU
in the capital region can better
serve both Andhra Pradesh and
Telangana states which require sci-entific
planning.
The Andhra Pradesh government
can make use of the centre's serv-ices
as it is in a preliminary stage
of designing the new capital, loca-tion
of multiple facilities and devel-opment
of infrastructure. Andhra
Pradesh which has nine coastal dis-tricts
is subject to vagaries of natu-ral
calamities, erosion of coastal
beaches and people in coastal vil-lages
being vulnerable to onslaught
of cyclones and floods. This centre
can help in better planning and re-location
of villages to save them
from frequent floodwater inunda-tion.
While coastal districts have
prospects for development, it is
also subject to dangers affront by
the sea and water bodies which can
cause misery and destruction.
The centre which has a ground
receiving station receives all the
necessary data from the satellite
coupled with images for analysing
the data and transferring the same
to agencies which need their serv-ices.
ANU College of Engineering
&Technology principal Dr P Sidda-iah
speaking to Vijayawada Hans
explained that the centre also helps
in tracking cyclones and alerting
people in advance. It also gives
satellite pictures of land develop-ment
for optimum utilisation of
land and its resources. It is the only
university to give such comprehen-sive
services in the State. The cen-tre
is prepared to accord such
services to any State in India and
particularly to Andhra Pradesh and
Telangana states. ANU vice-chan-cellor
Prof. Viyyanna Rao is the
moving force behind the develop-ment
of the centre.
The centre is prepared to help
the department of agriculture, hor-ticulture
and farmers to scientifi-cally
determine soil health of a
region, suitability of soil to crops
The Satellite Data
Analysis and Application
Centre at the Acharya
Nagarjuna University is
the only centre in the
State which can provide
inputs on a variety of
subjects including
agriculture, mining,
weather, urbanisation
and fisheries. The data
can help in better
planning and allocation
of funds thereby
providing an impetus to
the economy of the State
suggested and what crops can be a
profitable proposition to farmers so
that farming can turn remunerative
to farmers. Political decisions
should be backed up by scientific
planning as otherwise people
would tend to incur losses by un-scientific
demands. For example a
certain village may ask for a
borewell at a certain point which
scientifically is not the perfect lo-cation
for availability of groundwa-ter.
For funds to be properly
utilised and for yeilding expected
results, the decision should be
backed up by a groundwater expert
who determines the location based
on analysis and viability of ground-water.
Many an exchequers pre-cious
financial resources have been
wasted due to unscientific de-mands.
Same is the case with a
crop which is suitable for a partic-ular
region. Sometimes farmers do
the mistake of asking supply of
seeds for a particular crop of a
semi-arid region simply because
the crop is getting cent per cent in-surance
coverage and input sub-sidy.
The satellite centre of the kind
in ANU gives precise and prof-itable
advice to farmers so that soil
health, suitability of climate match
the crop, the farmers wants to raise.
When scientific advice is followed,
farmers can make farming a prof-itable
proposition and prevent sui-cides
and indebtedness and
dependence on agricultural doles
by government.
It is high time that the State gov-ernment
and farmers make use of
research institutions for the com-mon
good of the people and not
allow political demands to over-ride
a scientific reality. If people in
power succumb to such pressures it
will be a self defeating exercise
which is costly.
A worker sifting through wigs
Dr P Siddaiah
Satellite image of cyclone Helen