Economic and policy issues for Bagasse based paper and newspernt in India / by tirath Gupta and Vinod Ahuja

The paper and newsprint industries have a prominent role in the educational, commercial, industrial, social, political, and cultural life of a country. At the same time, healthy growth of a capital-intensive industry such as paper, necessitates relatively more rigorous planning and carefully designed policy support.
Faced with the perceptions of absolute scarcity of forest based cellulosic materials, and a high anticipated demand for paper, the Government of India encouraged the use of uncon ventional cellulosic material for paper making. Amongst th unconventional materials, bagasse has been the most emphasise through fiscal incentives. In spite of the incentives, the industry' experience with bagasse has not been very satisfactory. number of bagasse-based paper mills have either closed down or switched over to other materials. It appeared that the issue pertaining to the availability and relative cost of bagasse f paper making were not adequately assessed before recommending its large-scale use. This study looks into some of these aspects and ventures to suggest a few policy alternatives.