In 1953 an All-India body of distillers was constituted which was baptized All India Distillers� Association (AIDA). During the intervening six decades this association has not only grown in size but has also widened its sphere of activity. At the time of its birth, the association had a membership of only fifteen whereas the fraternity has now swelled to close to well over hundred. The constituents of the association control more than 80% of the total distillation capacity in the country. It is indeed a matter for gratification that AIDA is the sole apex representative body of the distillery and alcohol / ethanol industry in the country.
The Association has been carrying out a pioneering work with regard to catering to interests of the distillery industry and has gone from strength to strength throughout all these past 69 years, to the extent that it is now a force to reckon with as far as the alcohol, liquor and most importantly Ethanol distillery industry is concerned. The advent of Ethanol as an ideal blend for admixture with Motor fuel/petrol has provided further boost to the importance of this industry and the association, in the country's industrial scenario. We visualise a bright future for the industry and a much stronger association in very near future. One of the prime objectives of the Association is to promote and regulate healthy relationship between the workmen and workmen & between the employers and employees of the industry to maintain industrial harmony and business relationship. The Association was formed primarily for the purpose of regulating the relations between workmen and employers and to strengthen the knowledge base of the workers of the alcohol / ethanol industry.
The alcohol / ethanol Industry today is the primary supportive entity to its mother industry sugar and grain industry. It is the only and sole source of utilising the sugar industry's molasses, which is a waste product of sugar industry derived from production of sugar.
The All-India Distillers' Association (AIDA) is presently very active in tackling the issues for the industry primarily that of Effluent Treatment and Ethanol production from various resources apart from the molasses and Ethanol from Grains. The Association therefore in this cause, has been regularly conducting foreign study tours, technical seminars and Educative workshops primarily on ethanol & alcohol to educate its members on various latest and emerging technologies from all over the world. The problem of Effluent Treatment stares the industry in its face and it requires commercially and technically viable technologies to achieve Zero Spent wash Discharge (ZSD).
AIDA has been doing very thorough study and work in this regard with the result that the industry has achieved reasonably high success in finding the solutions to these major issues, and now is recognised as the sole representative of Distillery / Ethanol Industry, primarily Grain Based Ethanol, in many top countries all over the world. The industry lately has been recognised as sole and strong office bearer of grain-based distilleries producing ethanol. It has carried out member of international tours to various countries to study not only liquor industry but now more importantly ethanol particularly to U.K., Australia, Brazil & USA.
Thus, the expansion of the alcohol industry was the first major step taken up in the right earnest during 1990s onwards to the extent that from a small number of 60 distilleries in the country in the 1970s it rose to over 230 in early 1990s whereas today the number stands at over 390 distilleries in the country with the total production capacity of 700 Cr. litres of alcohol from sugarcane AND also over 152 Grain Based Ethanol producing units with production capacity of 506 Cr. Litres. This industry today is counted among the major and important industries and plays an important role in the nation's industrial and economic growth, with an annual turnover of over Rs. 10.00 Lac crores and providing direct and indirect employment to over 4.0 lac people.
AIDA is still trying to resolve some key issues that include huge divergence in types of duties/fees and rates thereof, huge difference in interstate rates of duties creating problems of pricing and interstate movement of products. AIDA is the leading business support organization for the alcohol & liquor and ethanol industry in India and maintains the lead as the proactive business solution provider through continuous interaction at the constituent level including OMCs and various government agencies level. It is therefore now the largest and the oldest apex organisation of Indian Alcohol and ethanol Industry.
With the untiring work and efforts of the present set up of the office bearers and the AIDA secretariat, AIDA has become the voice of the distillery industry and now the sole body to be recognised as torch bearer of the Grain Based Ethanol, in the country. The association's recommendations, suggestions and critical analysis on various policy matters pertaining to alcohol & ethanol and distillery industry are sought and considered by the Union Government as well as most of the state governments, before framing any policy.
The use of alcohol as a drink is an age-old story in India and it appears that the technique for fermentation and distillation was available even in the Vedic times. It was then called Somarasa� and was used not only for its invigorating effect but also in worship and medicinal uses. To date, not only has the consumption of alcohol been continued but it is an integral part of the Ayurvedic system of medicine.
The First distillery in the country was set up at Cawnpore (Kanpur) in 1805 by Carew & Co. Ltd., for manufacture of Rum for the army. The technique of fermentation, distillation and blending of alcoholic beverages was developed in our country on the lines of practices adopted overseas particularly in Europe. However, the rapid advancement in technology and through various innovations the art of fermentation has progress by laps and bounds and recoveries and quality have improved tremendously.
The distillery industry today consists broadly of two parts, one potable liquor and the other industrial alcohol including anhydrous ethanol for blending with petrol. The potable industry producing Indian Made Foreign Liquor and Country Liquor has a steady but limited demand with a growth rate of about 8-10 per cent per annum. The industrial alcohol industry on the other hand, had now been showing a declining trend because of high price of Molasses which is invariably used as a substrate for production of alcohol. The alcohol produced was being utilized in the ratio of approximately 52 per cent for potable and the balance 48 percent for industrial and ethanol for blending with petrol, use. However, over the years the potable liquor industry has shown remarkable results in the production of high-quality spirits. Indian Liquor industry is today exporting a sizable quantity of Indian Liquor products to other countries.
The utilization of Ethyl alcohol or Ethanol, now popularly known as alcohol, for industrial use is comparatively a recent, phenomenon and its importance came into being towards the end of the second world war. With protection being granted to the sugar Industry after independence, a large number of sugar factories were established in the country, particularly in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh where irrigation facilities existed for cultivation of sugarcane. This increase resulted in accumulation of molasses, which resultantly, caused unmanageable environmental problems. At that time the demand for molasses was almost insignificant and the sugar mills had to incur some expenditure on removal of this bye product i.e., molasses. For resolving these problems, a joint committee was constituted to explore the possibilities of developing alcoholbased industries for the purpose of utilization of molasses for alcohol production. The Committee in its report recommended the establishment of distilleries for production of alcohol, utilizing molasses as substrate.
It also recommended that the absolute alcohol produced by the distilleries should be admixed with petrol, to supplement motor fuel. The production of alcohol did not only help in solving the problems of disposal of molasses but it also filled up the gap in the demand and supply of motor spirit. In addition, a substantial quantity of alcohol after meeting its requirement for manufacture of gasohol alcohol was diverted for production of alcohol-based chemicals by pharmaceutical units in different parts of the country. The utilization of alcohol for this purpose progressed steadily and a substantial quantity of alcohol produced in the country is now being utilized for manufacture of solvents and intermediates. Till a few years back a little more than 50% alcohol produced in the country was being utilized for production of alcohol-based chemicals but after the decontrol of molasses in the year 1993 the utilization of alcohol for production of chemicals, dye-stuff, synthetic rubber, polymers and plastics etc. has received a setback
However, with the advent of ethanol blending with petrol/ motor fuel, the requirement of ethanol/ industrial alcohol from grains has increased manifold in the country to the extent that in case 15-20 % blending, if made mandatory all over the country, the sugar factory molasses available in the country shall not prove to be adequate for meeting the total requirement of ethanol including its use for potable liquors and other industrial uses. The alcohol industry has a total installed capacity of 1100-1200 Cr. litres of alcohol in a year. However, the licenced capacity is concentrated in three states of U.P., Maharashtra and Karnataka. With the announcement of the Government of India to make blending of motor fuel with ethanol up to 5 % mandatory and to raise it to 10% by the year 2019-20 and ultimately to 20% by the year 2025-26, a substantial increase in the requirement as well as production capacity of ethanol is expected and a large number of ethanol distilleries both from sugar and grain are on the anvil of installation. The Government has now allowed use of grains like Rice, Maize and Millets and other grains for increasing production of Ethanol for blending with petrol.
The ethanol is being mixed with petrol up to 20% to 25 % in Brazil and nearly 30 -40 % in USA particularly in the state of California. India therefore has to immediately look for other sources including grains and other products of feedstock for production of ethanol for increasing the total production and meeting the requirement of ethanol even for 15 to 20% blending with petrol, in addition with further increasing the availability of molasses through increase in sugar cane production and also sugar mills capacity. Thus, the distillery industry is destined to play a very important and vital role in the nation's economic and industrial scenario in the near future.
Today the total production of Ethanol has gone up to a quantity close to 500-600 Cr. Litres and the number of Ethanol producing distilleries today stands at 261sugar units and 152 grain-based units with a total combined Ethanol Production capacity of over 1000 Cr. Litres.
The basic prominent and important activities being implemented by the All-India Distillers' are as below.....
The Association promotes and regulates healthy relationship between the distillery industry at large in the country, as also between employer and employee and the entire work force. The industry believes that without and healthy employer-employee relationship no industry can prosper and expand.
The Association supports and opposes legislation as the case may be, and other measures to obtain the removal as far as possible of the grievances and hindrances affecting the industry.
The Association collects circulates and maintains various data and statistics about production, efficiency, recovery, stocks and other information relating to the interests of the industry.
The Association's one of the main objectives is to take up all the causes of the industry with the Govt. of India, State Governments and other various authorities as and when required to safeguard industry's common interests.
It endeavours to maintain good relations with all the allied agencies, chambers of Commerce and Associations to elicit all the information and assistance from all these sources, for the benefit of its members and the distillery industry as a whole.
The Association conducts and organizes meetings of its members to discuss about latest issues concerning the industry and to decide steps and action to be taken in the best interest of the industry.
It also disseminates technical information through its Technical Committee consisting of technical experts from the industry, by holding various technical meetings and seminars regarding information about latest technologies available in the field of distillery and alcohol and ethanol industry and effluent treatment processes etc. which could be and should be convincingly adopted by the industry all over the country.
The Association also obtains technical, commercial and legal information time to time from international sources by conducting international tours of technical and commercial importance and also by subscribing to various international publications for obtaining latest information on the subject.
The primary objective of the Association is to promote, protect and enhance relationship and to consider all questions related and effecting the industry from all fields and angles and the enhancement of employers-employee relationship in an efficient and harmonious manner.
Last but not the least AIDA publishes following periodical publications the providing necessary information to its members.
Newsletter - A monthly publication, providing news information of importance to industry from Govt., Technical and legal international sources.
Directory of Distilleries- An annual publication providing complete location wise information about all distilleries in India.
Compilation of proceedings of technical seminar / symposia organized by AIDA from time to time.
Efficiency Data- An annual publication providing complete production and efficiency data from distilleries for the previous year.