“Punjab is fully committed to enhance ease of doing business in true sense, which I believe is critical to promote and support the ‘Make in India’ campaign in Punjab”, shared Mr Madan Mohan Mittal, Industries & Commerce Minister, Govt of Punjab at a Workshop on Make in India in Punjab organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) at CII NR Headquarters in sector 31 A, here today. Today’s workshop would be followed by workshops all across the country.“The Make in India campaign which has now turned into a revolution would be instrumental in turning India into a manufacturing hub. And we would certainly not like Punjab to miss the bus because we believe that manufacturing has the highest potential to generate jobs, generate revenues for us and boost the economy. Hence, we have already implemented numerous measures to make our single window system effective for all State level Regulatory and Fiscal Incentive Approvals. So much so that even the centre has asked other states to follow Punjab model in single window clearance mechanism”, added Mr Mittal.
Elaborating further on the progress of Invest Punjab, he added that “We have received a total of 197 applications worth Rs.13,900 Cr so far, out of which 160 have been accepted. 96 projects have completed the LORC 1 stage while 44 have completed the LORC 2 stage. 27 % of these are for Manufacturing while 42 % are for Agro & Food Processing”.“If there is any place to invest in India today, it is Punjab. There are few pre requisites for smooth setting up and profitable functioning of any business, viz smart infrastructure, uninterrupted power supply at competitive rates, easy availability of land, enterprising work force, easy access to markets, conducive Govt policies, etc. In Punjab, we have all these in ample. We have earmarked a Land bank of 300 acres of pre cleared Govt sites comprising 662 plots with all necessary approvals already done. We are a power surplus state and the work force is pretty hardworking, sincere and industrial relations are very cordial too. Punjab caters to 10 -12 % of India’s population. Once the trade with Pakistan opens up, Punjab would be an ideal location to export to whole of central Asia as well”, he added.“Other reasons why Punjab is the best choice for business expansion is that the environment is very conducive to work. It also has huge untapped potential to serve the large manufacturing companies and Agri production and add value by processing it to earn huge profits”, he added.“We believe that just like the farmers, Punjab’ industry too has suffered a lot. And we are fully committed to support the existing industry as well. We are working in a direction to provide complete handholding to the companies throughout their lifecycles. We have also made various yearly mandatory audits advisory rather thanpenal in nature”, he added.
Ms Ravneet Kaur, Joint Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India shared that “We would soon bring out rankings of all the states on ease of doing business to promote healthy competition. The questionnaire has been shared with all states. We would double check their filled in questionnaires with the actual notifications and policies. We plan to come out with the final rankings of states on various parameters by August 2015”.“Make in India is basically aimed at bringing in new processes, new R&D, new mindset, new design, new infrastructure, new innovations, new sectors and convert India as the hub of Manufacturing and theeasiest and simplest place to do business. Our aim is to eliminate paperwork, processes, procedures, rules & acts and Converge & integrate departments and states. Our E-Biz platform has brought 14 services and regulations at one platform. We have even de licenced defence. Now 56% of defence items have been taken out of licensing requirement. Further, we have liberalized our FDI Regime with 100% FDI allowed in Railways,construction, single-brand retail, Telecom Sector and Medical Devices and 49% in defence and Insurance and pension funds”, she added.
Mr Anirudh Tewari, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce, Punjab & Chief Executive Officer, Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion requested the centre Government to extend the Amritsar – Kolkata industrial corridor (AKIC) to Wagah Border which is presently planned to terminate at Ludhiana. Further, he also requested Ms Ravneet Kaur to consider changing the intersection of eastern and western freight corridors at Ludhiana instead of Dadri. If it is taken up with the railways, It will help the whole northern region industry to transport raw materials and finished goods because they primarily use the western corridor and not the eastern corridor”.Mr SS Bhogal, Chairman, CII Punjab Council & Managing Partner, Bhogal Exports shared that “CII has been exhaustively supporting the Government to attain success in its Make in India campaign, which is possible with active support and participation of all the stakeholders including States and industry. CII will focus on Make in North and how Northern States could contribute much more to the overall manufacturing GDP through our initiatives at Regional, State & Zonal levels. We have tied up with the DIPP to hold awareness workshops all across the country”.