Kaliswari Fireworks, one of the biggest companies in India’s pyrotechnics capital Sivakasi, ran an ingenious experiment four years ago: It used masala mixers to blend together the chemicals that are used to make the sparklers, twinkling stars and flower pots that light up Diwali.


The experiment worked for Kaliswari, which soon became the first in its industry to have a mixing plant, a major step forward for its business and for Sivakasi, which had acquired notoriety as India's child labour capital.

The adoption of automation is another example of how Sivakasi, which produces almost all of India's firecrackers, is transforming itself from a rural backwater.

Located 500 km from Chennai in the southern part of Tamil Nadu, it earned opprobrium in the 1980s for employing child workers in the tens of thousands. The town and the firecracker industry set about cleaning up their act and now say no child is employed in the hazardous industry. Now, finding adult workers for the factories has become so difficult that Sivakasi has no option but to automate and modernise.

"Initially the industry didn't accept such automation but now things are gradually changing," says AP Selvarajan, MD of Kaliswari, which employs more than 8,000 people and makes crackers under the Cock brand name.

Where earlier Kaliswari would employ a dozen workers to mix its chemicals, it can make do with just two now. So the company has decided it will automate as much of the work as possible. Recently, it signed on Bangalore-based IISc to develop for it a filling machine. A tie-up, with another institute Selvarajan doesn't want to identify to maintain his competitive edge, will help automatic packaging.



Source: Economic Times, Oct 25, 2011