NIC to develop machines to produce incense sticks, toothpicks 

National Innovation Centre, Nepal (NIC) is going to make machines needed to produce incense sticks and toothpicks.  Under the support of the government, the Centre is planning to develop those machines within the current fiscal year 2022/23. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was inked on Friday between the Micro, Cottage and Small Industry Promotion Centre (MCSIPC) under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies and the NIC, for the study, research and development of necessary technologies to make the machines.

Acting Chief of MCSIPC Bishnu Prasad Bhusal and Chairman of NIC Mahabir Pun signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations in the presence of Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu amidst a function at the Ministry. As per the MoU, the Ministry will provide Rs. 4 million to the NIC for the current fiscal year to develop the machines.

“The government’s goal is to promote micro, cottage and small industries. Since the innovation centre will play an important role in this goal of the government, the ministry has provided Rs. 4 million as a subsidy for the development of machineries,” Minister Badu informed.

According to Badu, this agreement will help the national policy of using own products by increasing local production using local technologies. This is the first step towards cooperating with the Centre, he said, adding that that such cooperation and collaboration would be extended with the Innovation Centre in the future. Expressing happiness over the collaboration with the government, Pun said that the amount would be used to develop machines for making incense sticks, toothpicks, brooms and bamboo stools.

 ”We will work to complete the task before the end of the current fiscal year. We will prepare such machines by mid-May next year,” he said. Similarly, since there is a demand for millet processing machines from the villages, the budget can be spent on that as well, Pun said.  The Centre has been making small-scale machineries and providing them to the entrepreneurs.