Composting was encouraged in the early initiatives of
the Government of India (GOI) regarding MSWM focused
primarily on promoting composting of urban MSW. In the
1960s, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture offered soft
loans to urban local bodies for this purpose. The 4th 5-year
plan (1969–1974), block grants and loans were provided to
state governments for setting up MSW composting plants.
Finally, in 1974, GOI introduced modified scheme to revive
MSW composting, particularly in cities with a population
over 0.3 million. As far as large-scale composting is concerned,
many mechanical compost plants with capacities
ranging from 150 to 300 t/day were set up in the cities of
Bangalore, Baroda, Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi, Jaipur and
Kanpur during 1975–1980 under the central scheme of
MSW disposal. Indore city was a famous center for
MSW composting, and the name was used to describe
the composting process. The composting was done successfully
for many years up to 1980, but after that the compost