The company is privately held and is beneficially owned by Mr. N.R. Thakrar and other members of his family.

The total project costs are estimated at $51 million. The proposed IFC investment is a $8.5 million A Loan for IFC’s own account.

8.50 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan	8.50
Equity

* These investment figures are indicative

The new plant will be on a 25.01 hectare site in Gurgaon, Haryana State, 25km southwest of New Delhi.

The project will lead to increased supply market efficiency through URL procurement of rice from nearly 200,000 farmers. In the absence of an efficient domestic marketing system for cereals, URL has been instrumental in working with the Government agencies to increase transparency in the market place. URL is one of the major participants in auctions in around 60 purchase points (‘mandi’) which serve a large number of villages. It has contributed to strengthen these market institutions that improve price discovery for the benefit of local farmers. In addition to that as the Indian government has announced its intentions to liberalize grain marketing and storage in the country, URL would undoubtedly contribute to the further development of the private sector in these critical areas of the grain supply chain. In its direct support to firms, IFC’s strategy is to invest in companies which are - developing new products and markets; - restructuring and modernizing to become internationally competitive; and - expanding and moving towards a regional or global presence. In doing so IFC will focus on providing firms with long-term debt and equity which may not be available from domestic financial markets; and on adding value in the areas of global best practices, creating international partnerships, entering new markets, environmental and social sustainability and corporate governance.

This is a category B project according to IFC''s environmental review procedure because specific impacts may result which can be avoided or mitigated by adhering to generally recognized performance standards, guidelines, or design criteria. At the time the project was appraised in 1996 and 2001 key social, environmental, and health and safety issues analyzed were air emissions; liquid effluents; solid wastes; ambient noise; fire and explosion risk; use of insecticides; and general employee health and safety. Additional issues to be assessed during this appraisal include source and volumes of water required for both plants, including efforts to minimize water use; plant hygiene and product quality; use and disposal of hazardous materials; and corporate social responsibility efforts.
Location of environmental documents in locally affected community
The ERS will be disclosed in the local library, Civil Lines in Gurgaon. In addition to that with the local ‘Panchayat’ (community representative recognized by the Government). The advertisement will be published in the “Dainik Mewat”, 753/6, Sadar Bazar, Gurgaon (Tel.: +91-124-2321047), a daily newspaper published in Gurgaon.