Distinguished Chief Guest Mr. Viji Santhanam, Colleagues on the Executive Council, Exhibitors from home and abroad, TAGMA Members, esteemed Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I welcome you all with the utmost warmth and cordiality to this the 5th DIEMOULD INDIA INTERNATIONAL event which, to us, is the high season of technology & enterprise.

It is my privilege to specially meet, greet and welcome our Chief Guest Mr. Viji Santhanam whose name is almost synonymous with the growth of the TVS group into a global enterprise. As the Managing Director of Brakes India Ltd. he is known for his vision, enormous vitality, versatile activity and achievements.

This dynamic leadership and guidance has fused the various enterprises in the group into a commonwealth of technologies, education, finance, philanthropy, Trusts, Medicare and myriad other activities. In fact, their number is legion. United in mutual out-look and enterprise, they remain embodied in Mr. Viji Santhanam.

Ladies & gentlemen, welcoming such a one as Mr. Viji Santhanam is a unique privilege for me and on behalf of TAGMA and all who are here, I once again welcome him.

Also, I welcome you all with the same glow to this the 5th DIEMOULD INDIA INTERNATIONAL event.Ladies & Gentlemen, TAGMA was founded in 1990. The founders drew up a programme of work almost like the five year plan of the Nehruvian era.The first lustrum was for construction. The second for consolidation. And the third for conquest.

Now, at the end of the third lustrum, it is not without unjustified pride that I look ahead to march with time and people brought together by the great process of globalization which has also brought Mr. Viji Santhanam to us.

New discoveries and technologies are cascading and the time comes to take them by the forelock. It is here that I emphasize the collateral role of some of the government agencies which have to shed their mindset. For years, it had clogged the wheels of development and I trust that the Government will give it a new deal.

With the advent of our fourth lustrum we look to the forward integration that has to take place. Consumerism is peaking. We are talking in terms of volumes and explosive developments. The Tool Room industry is imbued with quality technology, quality time, quality power and quality production. Newer raw materials and alloys have catalyzed the metallurgical sector and the depth and area of their applications is widespread.

Since nothing happens by magic, the Tool Room industry has to get its act together and work to wards making India the future tooling destination. In the process, it must have sustainable advantage, inspire confidence in customers and prove its track record. The vision and mission of TAGMA have been clearly spelt out at many meetings across the country. It is also in the many publications distributed to the industry. They emphasise that no greater mission exists for TAGMA than to enhance the tool room industry in the shinning century before us.

Thus, Industry growth and the factors of support have to go hand in hand. The fulfillment of yesterday comes today with the anticipation of a globally recognized tomorrow. It beckons us onward. I request you all to move on with TAGMA. It is an institution through which you will grow.

The industry is yet to formulate a central pattern for growth, list its requirements and, in short, prepare a charter of what needs to be done to achieve TAGMA's Vision 2010. I speak from my heart of great hopes and greater expectations and to usher the industry into this aura of global activity.

Ladies and gentlemen, TAGMA hopes to establish link by link the chain activity to cover the industry in the country.

I thank you all for your participation in today's event in such significant numbers.

Once again I welcome our Chief Guest and all of you.

The rapid growth of Industries like automobiles and auto components, domestic appliances, consumer electronics and consumer durables in the wake of rising economic growth and consumer tendency to wards spending would ensure expanding need for dies, tools and gauges. Setting up of production capacity in user industries in India by foreign companies looking for low costs and a large market would add to the demand base for tooling, he said. Also, the ever shortening lifecycle of products resulting from intense competition in user industries and consumer preference for new products would warrant the development of new tooling and designs, Mr. Santhanam said on Friday.The Indian tooling industry can look forward to years of fast growth and booming demand and at the same time intensified domestic and import competition, according to Viji Santhanam, Managing Director of Brakes India Ltd.

Inauguration DieMould India 2006, the four-day fifth Die and Mould International Exhibition, organised by the Tool and Gauge Manufacturers' Association (TAGMA) at the Chennai Trade Centre, Mr. Santhanam, said the tooling industry would, however, be forced to cut costs as a result of pressures on margins faced by their buyer-industries and competition in Ihe tooling sector both from within the country and imports.

The industry should benchmark its Taiwanese counterpart to develop capabilities for fast delivery and emphasise skill development among the workforce. Otherwise, user industries would be inclined to set up captive tool rooms, he warned.

Skills Base: Mr. Santhanam paid tributes to the role played by institutions and tool rooms the public and private sectors in developing the skill base of the industry. These include the Nettur Technical Training Foundation, Government Tool Room and Training Centre, Indo-Danish Tool Rooms, Indo-German Tool Rooms, CIPET (Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology) and Central Institute of Tool Design.

S.C.Kalyanpur, President of TAGMA, Presided over the inaugural session.