To support each other's efforts in skill development and other areas as considered mutually beneficial and agreed upon from time to time

Refrigeration Air conditioning Manufacturers Association  (RAMA) and Refrigeration & Air-Conditioning Trade Association (RATA) have signed an MOU to engage in knowledge exchange collaboration on policy advocacy for enabling growth of the AC&R industry, strengthening of India’s cold chain infrastructure, formulation of the Production-Linked Incentive Scheme for white goods for MSME sector and responsible use of zero ODS and low GWP refrigerants and corresponding equipment.

This MOU also extends to supporting each other's efforts in skill development and other areas as considered mutually beneficial and agreed upon from time to time and conduct joint programmes for capacity building programmes involving stakeholders across the entire value chain, knowledge dissemination sessions, periodic stakeholder engagement, etc. 

"For many decades, the industry has not been taken very seriously by the government. And just before COVID, DPIIT expressed interest in this industry due to its potential. Following that, the then RAMA President Gurmeet Singh Sethi had gone to meet the officials and shown the difference between the AC&R industry in China and in India. That set the ball rolling. In the last two to three years, we have moved quite a bit. However, small businesses are still not looked after propetly. If you look at the mission, RAMA had given a commitment that the market could grow from Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 1 lakh crore. That mission had very clearly laid down action plan which needed the entire industry to work together. That is how we started taking many associations with us. Collective action only can take us out of this association," said Kanwal Jeet Jawa, President, RAMA, at the signing ceremony. 

Mihir Sanghvi, President, RATA, said, "Two big organisations - one representing OEMs and the other representing MSMEs - are coming together on a common platform for a common cause. It cannot be better for the Indian HVAC&R industry, which is a sunrise industry slated to grow eight times in the next two decades. We already have a CAGR of almost 15% and we'll be reaching US $30 billion in the next seven years. This is what we are looking at. Are we prepared for it? It has to be a collaborative approach where the OEMs and MSMEs hold each other's hands and start working together to create a better ecosystem. With this kind of exponential growth, we also want to achieve carbon neutrality by 2070. For this, we need a lot of research and development, skill development and new disruptive technology. It's not something that can be done individually or a single association. This is the time we will have to create a better ecosystem."