Mumbai, June 17 (KNN) The Union Chemical and Fertilizers Minister Anant Kumar said that centre has plans to create chemical hubs in the country.

He was speaking at the launch event of India Chem 2016 which will be held between September 1-3 in Mumbai.

He said that the government has proposed to create chemical hubs in the country. "We have 22 refineries and we will create chemical hubs state by state. When I speak of creating hubs, one of the major challenges is how to get the clearances from the environmental ministry and that too not for a Greenfield industry but for a brownfield industry to expand."

India’s chemical industry contributes approximately 7% to the country’s GDP and accounted for about 14% of the total Indian exports in 2015.

"From a consuming economy, India needs to become a producing economy, even in chemical and petro-chemical sector. We have to make a paradigm shift. We have decided in the ministry that we are going to make all the 22 refineries in the country as the nerve centres and petro-chemical complexes,” he added.

He further stated that Government is going to provide the industry with adequate infrastructure like railways, highways, water, communication and coordinate between the union and state governments. Third important challenge is human resources.

The Indian chemical industry accounts for ~4% of the global chemical industry and has been growing at a CAGR of 9.8 % over the past three years.

The industry has key linkages with several other downstream industries such as agriculture, infrastructure, textiles, food Processing etc. (KNN/ AR)