Plastics & Rubber 

There are 567 large public and private companies dealing with plastics and rubber products sector in the country. These companies engage in manufacturing and trade of products such as: tyres, tubes, rubber products, plastic packaging goods, sheet films, hygiene and pharmaceutical rubber products etc. 

In all 47 companies have invested in R&D activities in the most recent reporting year a total amount of about Rs 50 crores. Many of these companies are first time R&D investors falling into a low-end long tail trap.  

R&D programme of the two companies in the elite list of  Rs. 10 plus R&D, namely, MRF Ltd. And Essel Propack, is described in general terms, and they possibly engage in process improvements for the local operations. 

Major players with R&D in the sector [2007*]   

	Rs. Crores
	R&D Capital	R&D  Current	R&D  Total
Essel Propack Ltd.	7.85	10.83	18.68
M R F Ltd.	2.51	9.64	12.15

*Annualized figures 

IPCL which was a major operator in this sector has now been merged with the Reliance Group (Mukesh Ambani] IPCL was one of the significant R&D operator in the sector. These figures are not taken into consideration in the present calculations. 

Growth of the R&D investment in the sector is given below:

R&D Investment Trends in Plastics & Rubber Sector