The move comes after the company acquired the US Ocean Diamond brand and successfully introduced it in Canada, Mexico and other Latin American countries with an IBEF aid of Rs 6 crore.

The combined export turnover of these two brands is projected at $18 million to be achieved by March 2001, say commerce ministry sources.

The IBEF with a corpus of Rs 125 crore has given assistance in the form of soft loans to HMT International (Rs 5 crore) to promote its own watches in Singapore and Dubai and to KG Denim Ltd (Rs 1 crore) to promote the Trigger Brand of apparel in various countries. These loans are out of the interest earned from the corpus.

A preliminary assessment of the impact of the brand assistance programme indicates that HMT's sales increased (after the initiation of the brand promotion in September 1999) to Rs 149.42 lakh during October-March 2000, up from Rs 39 lakh during April-September 1999.

Similarly, KG Denim has received several enquiries from the US, Europe, Middle East and other markets for its branded garments after the first installment of assistance was released to the company in December 1999.

At a recent meeting called to review IBEF, commerce and industry minister Murasoli Maran emphasised the need for new initiatives to ensure that IBEF scheme was able to create an impact in terms of enhancing market access for Indian products and services abroad under the `Made in India' label and thereby enhance exports.

Further, a few flagship products should be identified along with niche markets for India brand promotion, he stated.

Commerce secretary Prabir Sen Gupta indicated that there would be a brainstorming session with the industry shortly to evolve possible new targets of brand promotion.

Such initiatives, Maran emphasised, were absolutely essential if the scheme which had been launched on Juy 11, 1996, with an initial corpus of Rs 25 crore was to have any visible impact.

The primary objective of the fund is to make the `Made in India' label a symbol of quality, competitive pricing, reliability and service to the customer. In addition, it will disseminate knowledge of products and services, obtain feedback and sensitise the stakeholders on improvements needed in their products and services.

A concessional interest rate for SSI products and two per cent below the prevailing packing credit rates for all others is fixed for granting loans under the IBEF which are repayable in five years with a moratorium of two years.