Maharashtra government has once more affirmed its resolve to set up two wine institutes in the state to impart training in winemaking and carry out related research work, a State Minister announced at the opening of Mahawine 2009 in Pune on Friday.
If there is a sense of déjà vu, it is because the project has been announced and reported earlier and only being reaffirmed. The state minister of non-conventional energy and horticulture, Vinay Kore was addressing the delegates during the inauguration of the two-day 'Mahawine 2009'—third edition of the International Conference and Exposition on Grapes and Wines, organised by the state council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on January 16 and 17.
'We are scouting for foreign institutes that would collaborate with the State government to open and run the institutes as a joint venture. We will jointly decide on the curriculum and syllabus for the proposed courses,' he announced.
While the work on the first such institute to come up in Sangli will start soon, the other venue is yet to be decided, according to the minister.
He also talked about the horticulture board to be started and the National Wine Board to be set up in Pune, the two topics being in the news for over a couple of months now. Maharashtra with 58 wineries out of a total of 62 is a natural choice as venue for such activities according to MIDC, the co-sponsor of the exposition which is known more for technical discourses on viticulture, winemaking , education and training and wine making machinery
The chairman of 'Mahawine 2009' and former president of state council of CII Rahul Kirloskar said that over Rs 2.5 bn have been invested in the Maharashtra wine industry. "The government has also announced an agri export zone for Nashik, Sangli, Pune, Sholapur, Satara and Ahmadnagar for grapes and grape wine park in Maharashtra", said Kirloskar.
Stephane Brochier, Head of International Department of Ecole Superieure d'Agriculture d'Angers (ESA), France was on hand to meet the perspective students who are interested to join the International Master Vintner Programme to commence in September. As featured by delWine last year, Ashwini Patil is the first Indian woman to have become a Master Vintner last year and is now helping them with the programme for Indian students.
GARTI, Gargi Agriculture and Research and Training Institute was also represented to showcase its wine programmes.
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