Marketing TARA Products The Road Ahead
An Interview with Air Commodore D. Banerjee who heads TARA, a sister organisation of Development Alternatives

Technology and Action for Advancement (TARA) is the main commercial partner of Development Alternatives (DA). This means that TARA has the contractual obligation to manufacture and market the innovative technologies developed by DA.

Although TARA is a no-profit, no-loss entity, and registered as a Society, it acts like a normal business. It operations are financed entirely through its sales revenue. But the products and services of TARA are not of the kind usually handled by an ordinary business.

The technologies developed by DA are meant for the poorer sections of society, especially in the rural areas, to enable them to better their living standards. And they are specifically designed to benefit women to use local resources, without destroying the resource base.

Success for TARA is a difficult concept to define. As a business, one part of success has to be defined in terms of marketing and sales figures. But then TARA is also a sustainable development organisation, concerned with issues of equity, self-reliance, environmental conservation and other social objectives, many of which are in direct conflict with the bottom line goal of maximising sales or profits.

If one takes the overall impacts together, several TARA products can be considered successful, or at least well on the way to success. Take, for example, the TARA loom. It is a shuttle handloom made with a metal frame. Unlike the traditional wooden loom, the TARA loom is strong, rigid and requires little or no maintenance.

Moreover, physically it is much easier and less fatiguing to operate because of several mechanical innovations such as gears fly-wheels. A “continuous take-up” roll winds up the cloth as it is woven, greatly reducing time lost in stopping to wind and at the same time giving a constant tension to make more uniform fabrics.

With all these innovations, the TARA loom greatly enhances the weaver’s productivity (in some cases, by as much as 80%) and results in a fabric of a much higher quality.

No, it is a highly versatile machine. With slight modifications, it is capable of producing excellent quality fabrics ranging from coarse woolen blankets, durries and jute fabrics to fine cotton, silk and even polyester filament cloth. It is available in models ranging from fabric width of 36” to 120”.

The TARA loom is being used in various parts of the country. It is used in Haryana to make cotton textiles, in U.P. for woolen fabrics and in Karnataka for dupion silk.

Some are bought by individual weavers. But most are bought through various voluntary agencies and government supported programmes for introducing improved weaving techniques in various parts of the country. TARA has its own weaving centres mainly in Haryana and Karnataka which demonstrate the commercial viability of these technologies. In Nagaland, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, Development Alternatives has worked with other agencies to establish weavers cooperative centres which provide traditional weavers with higher income, jobs, in many cases, doubling their earnings.

First, of course, there is the TARA Balram. The enormous housing shortage in India (more than 33 million families with inadequate housing) and rapidly escalating cost of building materials has led to explore the use of one of the most commonly used materials in the country – mud . TARA Balram compresses mud which is widely available into a strong brick that needs no firing: simply drying in the open. This “mud block” makes an excellent building material for the walls of a house. Since it needs no baking, a great amount of wood fuel is saved, thereby reducing the pressure on our fast dwindling forest resources.

The technology has been used and approved in many different parts of the country. It is widely accepted as a good building material, both in its “stabilised” form (incorporating cement or lime) or in its “unstabilised” form which consists only of compressed raw soil. In terms of engineering, stabilised blocks are more attractive, but the unstabilised ones are less expensive.

The unstabilised blocks have to be protected from contact with water. Therefore, the walls made of these have to be covered with appropriate plaster made of mud or lime.

In Delhi, the cement stabilised blocks cost 85 paise, and the unstabilised ones can be made for 30 paise. In either case, they are now much cheaper than baked bricks. In other regions, the price varies, but in most places it is about half as much as baked bricks.

Mud blocks are easy to manufacture and durable, provided the appropriate engineering principles are followed. It is a labour intensive technology, making use not only of local materials but creating many new jobs.

More than 600 machines over the past three years. Many of these have been bought by agencies involved in building low cost housing, but we are increasingly looking for individual entrepreneurs who will set up a block manufacturing facility at the village level.

We provide training to anyone who buys a Balram. Because of the technical support requirements, we prefer to sell the Balram in regions of the country like U.P., Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and the North-East, where there is adequate soil and a comparative cost advantage for the mud blocks and where we can provide appropriate after sales service.

We would like to get it into the national housing sector through small enterprises and community based organisations. The key to success is to demonstrate how an entrepreneur can profitably produce and sell mud blocks. Our training programmes and follow-up activities are designed precisely with this purpose in mind. In the long run, the success or failure of the TARA Balram will depend on how many houses get built with mud block technology; and this will have to be not in the hundreds or thousands but in lakhs. This can only be achieved through the establishment of viable, profitable enterprises.

Yes. Perhaps our most successful one is the micro-concrete roofing tiles (MCR) currently sold under the "“icrolite"”label. Next to thatch roofs, MCR tiles are now becoming the least expensive option, even cheaper than Mangalore tiles and country khaprail. MCR tiles make excellent roof not only for low income housing but also for other types of buildings including industrial buildings, poultry sheds and roadside restaurants.

Today, there are several housing colonies with several hundred houses that have used MCR tiles almost exclusively. This includes housing projects at Fatehpur and Etawah, both in U.P., upgraded slum houses in Delhi and village houses in Devenhalli, Karnataka. The Andaman and Nicobar Island administration has shown keen interest in using MCR tiles and has established a production facility at Port Blair. Altogether, some three lakh MCR tiles are already on the roofs of houses in different parts of the country.

We do, indeed. We have one of the most successful hand made re-cycled paper units in the country. It is currently based in South Delhi but we plan to set up a number of units in other regions.

The demand for re-cycled paper is growing rapidly with the growing awareness of environmental issues. We have a number of different market segments, and we find it difficult to meet the demand. Incidentally, clients buy much thicker grades of paper, and use it for manufacturing industrial filters, mosquito repellent mats, coaster papers and various types of boards. Thirty percent of our total production has been committed to regular supplies in this area.

The major market segment and, of course, the most interesting , is that of high grade, fine quality paper and card sheets. This is used for personalised stationery, drawing paper, invitation and greeting cards. Retailers as well as institutions wishing to promote an environment friendly image are the main clients.

Our hand made re-cycled paper is made primarily from cotton waste which we buy from tailoring and hosiery establishments, and from waste papers. We also make hand made paper form biomass resources such as agro residues and plant materials such as dhaincha (Sesbania bispinosa) rice straw, etc. We do not use wood or chemicals in our paper making process.

There appears to be a tremendous market abroad for hand made paper products, and partly because of their aesthetic appeal. But this means close attention to quality control and cleaner production methods, both of which are primary concerns of the TARA paper unit. Several varieties of our hand made paper have been exported and the international demand is growing rapidly. Most o it is for fine paper, made form biomass and natural fibres and without acid or chlorine.

We have already been supplying greeting cards, envelopes file covers and other items. In due course, we will be able to add a printing unit capable of delivering finished printed products to clients.

Hand made paper units could, in principle, be set up in thousands all over the countryside. A viable unit would need to make somewhere between half and one tonne of finished product per day. The units in urban area would re-cycle paper and cotton wastes which are widely available. Rural units can use biomass and agricultural waste. Given the tremendous shortage of paper in India, will be some time before the markets can be saturated. In addition, each paper unit creates some 100 jobs and considerable local purchasing power. This is a good technology both from a business and a development point of view.

To facilitate the establishment of hand made paper units, TARA provides not only technology and know-how to entrepreneurs, but also services for training, feasibility reports and marketing of products. q