With the liberalisation of economy,
 an increasing trend can be observed.
 More and more successful NRI busi-
 ness men are slowly turning their
 attention towards India. And some
 states are becorning the focus points
 e.g Rajasthan. Many  Rajasthani's
 who had migrated from their state of
 origin due to absence of scope and
 infrastructure  are returning to reap
 gold from  the  sands.  The  state
 government Is also helping them
 with      adequate  infrastructure.
 Among those,  who have already
 started on building up projects based
 in Rajasthan, is Mr. Rajkumar Sethia.
 The new project of Mr.R.K.Sethia
 has been christened Uni Legwears
 (India)  Ltd. Mr.Sethia, who is the
 Vice Chairman   and   Managing
 Director of this company explains his
 choice of Rajasthan as the site for his
 new project by describing it as an
 action to  return to  the  roots,
 Although  our  forefathers  had
 migrated to West Bengal, we have
 always maintained close ties  with
 our birth place. But now I want to
 give a permanent shape to our fami-
 l~'s cherished dream of rebuilding
 firm ties with our home state. It is to
 fulfill this mission that a 100% EOU
 has been  set  up  at Hirawala
 Industrial area in Kanota near Jaipur,
 Rajasthan. As one understands after
 talking to the VC and MD of Uni
 Iegwears, once full fledged produc-
 tion starts in the factory, Unilegwear
 is going to make a mark, not only in
 fl~e domestic but also in the interna-
 tional market. There are a lot of rea-
 sons to this.
 	In  the first place, the Board of
 UniLegwears consists of people with
 enviable  track records.  Mahendra
 Nahata, who is in the hoard of direc-
 tors, is one such person.. He is the
 Executive  Vice  chairman    of
 Himachal Futuristic Communications
 Ltd. HFCL and Nahata were in the
 headlines recently  for  being  the
 highest bidder for providing basic
 telecom  services in nine circles of
 the country. Alongwith him, there are
 Mr.S.C.Sethia,	Mr.J.K.Baid,
 (Dr. Ploycon   International   ltd),
 Mr.R.K.Banthia,  and  Mrs.Neeta
 Sethia.
 
 	R.K.Sethia, the main brain behind
 the pioject has enormous experience
 in socks manufacturing. He has visit-
 ed most of the socks machinery man-
 ufacturers~of the world and has also
 studied the production procedure of
 socks, abroad. He )ias also been reg-
 ularly participating in various engi-
 neering and textile fairs; the famous
 Hanover fairs in Germany being one of
 them.
 	According to Mr.R.K.Sethia the
 total cost of the project is     74
 lakhs.  The promoters contribution of
 Rs.232 lakhs has
 already	been
 brought in by them
 and  used for the
 project. An impor-
 tant point to note is
 the financial back-
 up  extended  to
 this project by the
 country's premier
 financial  institu-
 tion,  lDBl.  The
 lDBl loan, which
 amounts to Rs.427
 lakhs, and which is	Mr.R.k.SetI
 equivalent to  the	UNI LEGW
 entire foreign cur
 rency loan, has already been disbursed
 to  its  full capacity.  This not only
 speaks of the confidence that this pro-
 ject has be~n able to generate, but also
 illustrates the  trust the managerial
 quality of the project has  initiated.
 The rest of the project cost, which
 amounts to Rs.315 lakhs is to be raised
 through a proposed public issue,
 which is due to open very soon. As
 far  the  preliminary  arrangement,
 according to   the MOU   signed
 between Uni Legwears and Uniworth
 International Ltd, there would be a
 100% buyback facility for the first five
 years of  regular  production.  This
 would, with  Uniworth's  exclusive
 marketing network definitely give the
 Unilegwears products a competitive
 edge, especially international mar--
 kets  ensuring constant profitability.
 In fact, this was corroborated by VC
 and Mi), when he gave a truly ambi-
 tious picture of the growth of the com-
 pany. As per projections, the company
 is stated for almost a 100% rise in sales
 in the very first year of production,
 with a turnover  of Rs.449 lakh in
 1996, Rs.646 lakh in 1997 and Rs.754
 lakh in 1998. The net profit is expect-
 
 	ed to be 76 lakh (1996), Rs.l42 lakh
 (1997) and Rs.189 lakh( 1998).
 	The project will have a capacity of
 producing 28.72 lakh pairs of socks
 per annum. Sethia has ensured that
 the best brains and best machines
 come together at his project. Hence he
 is buying, automatic linking machines
 from Conti Complete of Italy, and
 manual linking machines from Exacta
 rimagliatricl. Both are world leaders
 in  their  field.  The  two  ironing
 machines are   being provided by
 Technopea and Cortese- again names
 to reckon with in
 their field. The
 machine Cortese
 is providing will
 have   infra-red
 facilities.   The
 single   cylinder
 machine,  incor
       .	porated with hard
 
 disk be ~rmoPugth~t
 
 - a company that
 specialises in the
 
 hia, VO & MD    production of this
 EARS (I) LTD'.    type of comput
 	erised	sock
 	designing   machines. The double
 cylinder  machine  will  be brought
 from MATEC srI of Italy, again the
 best, one can acquire in the industry.
 Letters of credit have been opened for
 all imported machineries. Most of the
 machineries shall  be  shipped from
 Italy in September this year.
 	The project is in advanced stage of
 completion. The layout and design of
 the project has strictly adhered to
 Italian specifications, with RCC con-
 struction flooring paved with Kotah
 stones and marbles.
 	The manufacturing process is as fol-
 lows. For the manufacture of design
 socks from cotton and wool, the pat-
 tern and design are injtially fed into
 the  computer  based  Knitting pro-
 grammes.  The  knitting machines
 manufacture  socks based on these
 programmes  using  raw material
 already mounted on the machines in
 the form of cones.  The socks so
 obtained are in tubular forms, open at
 both ends. The linking m~hine is used
 to  link  the  toes  of the  socks.
 Thereafter, the socks are loaded on the
 steaming and ironing machines for fin-
 ishing. After pairing and labeling on
 
 automatic machines, the socks are
 ready for packaging.
 	According to Mr.R.K.Sethia, the
 raw materials will be easily avail-
 able from the local suppliers, while
 the small requirem~nt of spandex -
 a type of elastic yam solely manu-
 factured by Dupont, USA - would be
 met up from local agents. The plant,
 which would  be  fully air-condi-
 tioned, has already installed  500
 KVA transformers from Kirloskar
 again the market leaders in this lield
 in the country. 300 kg boilers have
 been installed by Thermax, along
 with 60 HP compressors. The RSEB
 sanction   for power supply has
 	~~	~~~d.  ~~~tb~
 arrangements have been   made
 through the acquisition of 2 DG sets
 of 82.50 KVA capacity.
 	With these infrastructural facilities,
 there will be the  backing of the
 brains. Mr.Sunil Mebta, one of the
 best computer brains in Jaipur has
 already been enrolled in the compa-
 ny's pay list. A team of engineers
 along with Mr.Mehta would he leav-
 ing for Italy very soon to acquire the
 required, state-of-the  art  technical
 knowhow, while technologists and
 engineers of the main  machinery
 suppliers will be coming down to
 impart necessary training to the
 workforce. Just before the start of
 production, a knitting expert from
 Germany will be stationed at the fac-
 tory to ensure  quality control and
 optimum production.
 The company also harbours exten-
 sive expansion plans.  Already  an
 additional construction of 19,0(0 sq
 ft. 6n the first floor   has been
 embarked upon for this purpose~ This
 expansion would be into the produc-
 tion of ladies garments, leggings and
 the like, apart from socks. In antic-
 ipation of the proposed expansion,
 the company  has installed boilers,
 transformers of higher capacity and
 have also carried out electric installa-
 tions to take care of future require-
 ments.
 	The unbeatable combination of the
 project itself, its location, its techno-
 logical edge, its sound promoters, the
 IDBI   stamp  ~f approval. the
 Uniworth Seal of quality - all make
 this an unique venture.lt is therefore
 time for investors to hang their socks
 for this Santa Claus gift.