Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • Multimedia
    • NPE2021
    • K Show
    • Special Reports
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • NPE exhibitors question handling of deposits for canceled trade show
      Exhibitors back NPE cancellation: ‘We couldn't take that risk'
      NPE2021 canceled as in-person event
      NPE reviews its options as pandemic prompts exhibitor to exit
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • CEO Issue
    • Best Places to Work
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Getting back on the road
      How long will it take for EVs to replace internal combustion engines?
      Watching, and hoping, for progress in 2021
      COVID-19 stories dominate 2020 headlines
    • Kickstart: No one said returning to school would be easy
      Kickstart: Best foot forward
      Kickstart: Heading back to the office ... sometime
      Kickstart: 'Have an adventure in life'
    • Heavy Metal: Coronavirus edition, plus the work of working from home
      Don't put off succession planning
      What's a good gift for your cobot? Batteries?
      Here's some big ideas to mull over the holidays
    • Plaskolite wins 3M supplier award
      Green feet: Braskem partners with Dansko on bio-based clogs
      Curbell donates plastic sheet for prosthetics project in Ecuador
      Covestro volunteers build ramp for Ohio veteran
    • There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Think divided government stalls plastics legislation? Think again
      ACC, NAM eye economic priorities in Biden presidency
    • Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
      Just how big is thermoforming in North America?
      Changing names for compounders embracing corporate branding
      Diversity the key to outperforming the market
    • Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
      The benefits of getting social
      Rising Stars shine bright future on industry
      Getting back on the road
    • Perspective: Plastics manufacturers — a surprising contribution to sustainability
      Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce
      Perspective: ‘Fake news' of a different sort?
      Perspective: Making products in the USA is good for the planet
    • Mailbag: Additional fees for electric vehicles ‘unfortunate'
      Mailbag: Where's the plastics industry's response to critics?
      Mailbag: Manufacturers struggling to follow COVID-19 safety rules
      Modernizing recycling infrastructure will benefit businesses as well as the environment
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
    • Maintenance can ensure efficient blender operation
      Dosing: Perfect for adding color
      Blending vs dosing: What you need to know
      Going low or high: Comparing volume
    • Colors and custom compounds
      In the laboratory: Compounding solutions
      Recycling content: Resins going ‘green’
      Compounding: Glass and other fillers
    • Dryer maintenance: Don’t err with air
      Dryers: Options for a shop’s process
      Dryer installation: Going central?
      Resins: Hygroscopic or non-hygroscopic
    • Electric injection molding presses: Efficiency is key
      Hydraulic injection molding machines
      Proper maintenance can prevent downtime
      Hybrid injection molding machines
    • Purging Hot runners: Open or closed methods
      Purging extrusion machinery
      Purging extrusion blow molding machines
      Purging: Chemical, abrasive and non-abrasive
    • Controls, special applications boost production, profitability
      Robot maintenance key for smooth operation
      High-speed robots: A rapid way to increase efficiency
      Robots: Every shape and size
    • Maintenance: Key for efficiency
      Shredders: Plastic in pieces
      Safety first for size reduction
      Granulators: The right fit
    • Video: Structural foam molding
      Structural foam molding: Flexibility for processors
    • Mold inventory: How many molds does a shop have?
      Molds: Innovation
      Mold changeover: Saving time and money
      How molds work
    • Labor: Apprenticeships may provide answer
      Internships: Solving the skills gap in-house
      College training, programs
      Lean Six Sigma: Transforming business operation
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Ask the Expert
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Polymer Points Live - February 2021
      Polymer Points Live - January 2021
      Polymer Points Live - December 2020
      Polymer Points Live - October 2020
    • Plastics in Healthcare 2020
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Plastics in Healthcare
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Data Store
  • Directory
  • More+
    • Classifieds
    • Digital Edition
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Sponsored By Ensign Equipment
      Filling Systems Customized for Any Process or Budget Need
      KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
      Sponsored By Mitsubishi
      Innovative new technology from Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation helps reduce emission footprints
      Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Sponsored Content By Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Canon Virginia Inc. brings collaboration to the table
    • KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
    • Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Tailored maintenance for injection molding machines and robots
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Improve maintenance efficiency with e-connect.monitor
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Maximum precision for lowest shot weights
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Even more cost effectiveness for small precision parts
    • Shell
      Sponsored By Shell
      Food and Beverage Trends Impacting the Polymer Industry
      Sponsored By Conexiom
      Use Sales Order Automation to free up time for CSRs to focus on customers, not manual entry
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
December 05, 2014 01:00 AM

Lawsuits: Government pressured Plastindia's move to Gujarat

Steve Toloken
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    Plastindia
    Plastindia's website boasts the benefits of the new site in Gujarat.

    The government of Gujarat — the power base of new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — pressured the plastics industry to move its Plastindia show from its longtime home in New Delhi to Gujarat.

    That accusation is contained in lawsuits filed by three exhibitors angry at the organizers' decision to move the event, just a few months before its February opening, to a new trade fair complex that workers are still racing to finish — and that some believe won't be ready in time.

    “There was tremendous pressure from [the] Government of Gujarat on the Managing Committee of Plastindia Foundation for shifting the venue of Plastindia, 2015, from Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, to Gandhinagar, Gujarat,” one of the lawsuits said.

    The government pressure, the lawsuits allege, benefits a prominent trade show management company in Gujarat, K&D Communication Ltd., by bringing Plastindia to an exhibition center that K&D is building in the city of Gandhinagar.

    The president of the Plastindia Foundation, Subhash Kadakia, however, disputes the allegations that there was government pressure influencing PIF's decision.

    Kadakia defended PIF's decision, saying that the new exhibition grounds will be much more modern than the 30-year-old fairgrounds in Delhi, which he said lacks proper power connections and other infrastructure.

    “You cannot call it pressure,” said Kadakia, who also is managing director of Kadakia Plastics & Chemicals Pvt. Ltd. in Mumbai. He characterized the conversations with government officials as “giving feedback to us. They requested to us, ‘Why don't you come and take a look [at Gandhinagar]?'”

    There's another wrinkle in an already convoluted case: PIF put out a statement Dec. 5 saying that the Indian government has decided to close Pragati Maidan for renovations for three years.

    While that would seem to render the lawsuits a moot point — eliminating any chance of keeping the 2015 show in Delhi – some executives supporting the lawsuits were suspicious of the timing.

    The suits have been brought by three companies based in and around New Delhi – Aerodry Plastics Automation Pvt. Ltd.; Hitco Electricals Pvt. Ltd. and Adroit Control Engineers Pvt. Ltd.

    They want the court to order the Mumbai-based PIF to keep the show in New Delhi for its 2015 edition, slated to run from Feb. 5-10.

    A Dec. 11 hearing has been set in the High Court in Delhi. One lawsuit filed by the companies, a so-called writ petition, has already been withdrawn, on what they argued was procedural grounds and some PIF officials said was a vindication for them.

    While there's no specific proof of government arm-twisting, the lawsuits imply that Gujarat government leaders took advantage of the aftermath of elections in May that propelled Narendra Modi from head of Gujarat's state government to prime minister of India. It was a major changing of the guard in India politics.

    The lawsuits allege, for example, that senior officials in India's Ministry of Commerce organized a meeting Sept. 5 in Delhi, bringing in top PIF leaders and Gujarati state government officials, to talk about moving the show.

    In that meeting, Kadakia said government officials disclosed they were considering closing the Delhi fairgrounds for renovations, a plan India's government has been discussing for several years.

    That was followed by a second meeting, on Sept. 10 in Gujarat, where PIF officials met with Saurabh Patel, a senior government minister in Gujarat, to again discuss relocation.

    Three days later, on Sept. 13, the PIF board voted to move the show, the lawsuits allege.

    While PIF said it made that decision without government pressure, one letter written in mid-September by one of PIF's international partners suggests the opposite — that PIF was feeling the heat from politicians.

    Germany's Messe Düsseldorf, which organizes the world's largest plastics show, the K Fair, wrote a letter to PIF Sept. 15, after PIF leaders earlier that day had called them to discuss their Gujarat plans.

    That letter, which has previously been leaked to Plastics News, said it was a “big surprise” for Messe Düsseldorf to hear of the shift to Gujarat and appeared to express some sympathy with PIF, saying that “we do understand there must be tremendous pressure from the Government of Gujarat.”

    The lawsuits say the change of venue was also a big surprise for India's plastics sector. They point to July articles in PIF's magazine circulated to the industry, where officials talked glowingly of the “great enthusiasm” for work being done to prepare for the 2015 show at New Delhi's Pragati Maidan Fairgrounds.

    They said there's significant opposition to the last-minute move.

    The lawsuits allege breach of contract, and say companies will have significantly reduced business opportunities and higher costs if the show moves at this late date to the Gujarat fairgrounds, known as the Mahatma Mandir Exhibition Centre in Gandhinagar, outside Ahmedabad.

    Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar have only three five-star hotels, while Delhi has more than 150, they argue. The new fairgrounds are still under construction and the lawsuits question whether power, water and other infrastructure can be completed in time.

    “The new venue at Gandhinagar, Gujarat, is not ready for such a vast and big show like Plastindia,” the suit said. “It is general knowledge of the professionals in the exhibition industry that a successful international exhibition would need to be prepared properly 18 months or more in advance.”

    The new venue is being built by K&D Communication, an Ahmedabad-based exhibition management company that is a partner with the government of Gujarat in organizing the Vibrant Gujarat 2015 trade fair.

    K&D also had been organizing its own plastics exhibition in Gandhinagar, which was originally scheduled for six days from Jan. 29 to Feb. 3, essentially competing with the six-day Plastindia.

    According to the website for that exhibition, which was called India Plast, it has been postponed until 2016.

    One of the lawsuits alleges that K&D Managing Director Kamlesh Gohil was invited by the Gujarat government to attend the Sept. 10 meeting to discuss moving Plastindia.

    Kadakia said Plastindia will be held at the exhibition grounds that K&D is building.

    “K&D is building the most modern, convenient & state-of-the-art exhibition center with an area of 102,000 square meters spread over 45 acres,” the company said in marketing materials, calling it “India's largest exhibition center” with 15 exhibition halls.

    K&D's website does not mention Plastindia but says it's involved in helping to organize and market four other plastics shows next year, in Kenya, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

    For his part, Kadakia disputed that there would be reduced business opportunities in a Gujarat location.

    PIF officials argue that 60 percent of India's plastics industry is based in Gujarat, and the state has a reputation for being business.

    “If you want to give some excitement to the people, you can tell them that Plastindia 2015 is fully booked,” he said. “If some people are not happy, why are so many people booking space?”

    Plastindia's video walkthrough of the new exhibition site.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • What Keeps You Up At Night
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Polymer Points Live
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • Multimedia
        • Videos
        • Galleries
        • Podcasts
      • NPE2021
      • K Show
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Best Places to Work
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Plastics in Healthcare
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Ask the Expert
      • Polymer Points Live
      • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
      • Plastics in Healthcare Library
      • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Data Store
    • Directory
    • More+
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Digital Edition
      • Newsletters
      • Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Processor of the Year submissions