Industry, Govt & Singaporean Experts to deliberate on Make in India: Focus North at CII Meet

Ludhiana, March 18, 2015: Top industry CEOs, Government representatives and experts from LKY School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore converge and deliberate on how northern states can leverage the ‘Make in India’ opportunity at the CII Conference on ‘Make in India: Focus North’ being organised as part of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Northern Region’s Annual Regional Meeting, at Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi on March 19.

 

Experts from top university of Singapore which is rated the best country by the World Bank in ‘Ease of Doing Business’ would share their insights, key leanings & experiences and the global best practices which the north Indian states can emulate to create an enabling ecosystem for doing business and enhancing investment competitiveness.  Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI), National University of Singapore works to build intellectual leadership and network for understanding and developing competitiveness in the ASEAN region.

 

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will also be signed between CII and LKY School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore to cooperate in relation to the ongoing project “Masterplan on Ease of Doing Business in India (MEDBI): Vision 2020” of LKY’s Asia Competiveness Institute.

 

Elaborating on the context of the CII Conference on Make in India: Focus North,  Zubin Irani, Chairman, CII NR shared that “Manufacturing has fallen behind as compared to the services sector as far as the Indian economy is concerned. However the trend is even more pronounced in the northern states. Manufacturing contributes only about 12.9% to the regional GDP as against the national average of 14%, which is reflected in northern states contributing only 22.3% to the national manufacturing GDP as against an overall contribution of 26% to the national GDP”.

 

“This is quite low as compared to some of the manufacturing led economies in the region - 34 and 32 per in Thai and Chinese economies respectively”, he informed.

 

Emphasizing the way forward for northern states, Irani shared that “CII has been working closely with the northern states, to help leverage the Make in India opportunity. The strategy has been two pronged – to strengthen some of the sectors in which north has been traditionally strong including auto & auto components, textiles, pharmaceuticals, food processing etc. & also explore some of the new sectors that are opening up for investments specially  defence, aerospace, railways, electronics. The other part being creation of an enabling environment in terms of infrastructure and B2G interface, to enhance ease of doing business. To take it further, we have chosen Make in India: Focus North as the theme for our annual conference”.

 

Commenting on the progress made by some of the northern states in terms of measures on the ease of doing business front, Shreekant Somany, Deputy Chairman, CII NR, said that CII sees a lot of proactive measures by the northern states to simplify ease of doing business, as well as focusing on strengthening the industrial infrastructure.

 

For example, Government of Rajasthan made key amendments in labour laws - The Industrial Disputes Act, Contract Labour Act, and The Factories Act. Other northern states as expected to follow suit.  The other recently introduced policies in north include Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme 2014, Uttarakhand MSME Policy, Rajasthan Solar Energy Policy 2014, Haryana Solar Policy 2014 etc. Uttar Pradesh Government has also adopted several measures for the development of industrial sector with an investor-friendly policy framework. Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir are in the process of revising their industrial policies.

 

The states of Rajasthan and Uttarakhand have introduced statutory Single Window System. Government of Punjab has created a nodal agency, Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion to function as Single Window System, an authority for giving 14 clearances. Other states have also set up Single Window System as one-stop facilitation center for industries.

 

The CII session on Make in India: Focus North, will deliberate on some of the opportunities and challenges in attracting investments in the region.