Bharathi Cement started commercial production on 28th September 2009. Today, Bharathi is a leading cement brand and company in South India.

The Indian cement industry is more than 100 years old, but has seen major tech¡nological changes over the past 25 years. The advancements in quality control and testing laboratories started about a decade ago.

The Indian cement industry is likely to witness continued M&A activities, albeit on a smaller scale, with focus on strategic and operational competitive advantage. India ranks second in the world in terms of both cement capacity (+430 million tonnes per annum) and consumption (~290 million tonnes).

Bharathi Cement of Vicat Group uses Alternate Raw Materials and Fuels (AFR) extensively in its kilns. Milind Murumkar, Advisor, Vicat Group, speaks on the latest trends in this field.

The cement rotary kiln [perhaps] is one of the cost effective options available to burn waste. It helps the industry and also the society at large.The success lies in the right policy framework.

ABG Group is diversifying its business into cement, power segment, and for this purpose started two companies called ABG Cement Ltd. and ABG Energy Ltd. respectively. The company has adequate financial resources for this business

Andhra Pradesh government is planning to procure more than 2 million tonne of cement this year from cement companies those have factories in Andhra Pradesh for its infrastructure and social development projects.

Cement branding has evolved blurring the limits of commoditised selling. From product centric to customer centric, from dry commercials to humorous TVCs, from stagnant frames to animated 3D frames; and from general concepts to niche concepts like ´build sustainable´ to ´build beautiful´, branding has come a long way, to an extent story telling.

There has been perceptible change in the concept of creating a brand for cement. Few decades ago cement was only a commodity but considered as a brand now, says M Ravinder Reddy, Director Marketing - Bharathi Cement.