Amritsar: The Punjab Government and the TATA Group initiated a large scale engagement to take the state to the next level of development and make Punjab a key destination of the country’s premier business, trade and industrial power-house in a wide-ranging sweep of projects, which cover building top-end model townships, power, renewable energy, world class hotel chains, solid and water waste management, modernising the state’s already solid infrastructure along global lines and introducing state-of-the art rapid transport facility in major cities and towns of state.
The Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal also announced to constitute a high level committee of the officers from the state government under the Chief Secretary which would have detailed parleys with the Tata group for firming up the investment proposals.
CM constitutes committee to hold parleys with Tata for firming up
investment in state
Governance reforms to attract major investments
Impresses upon Mistry to firm up huge investments in state
Deputy CM solicits support of Tata for providing quality civic facilities
in cities
Assures fulsome support to the group for investment in state
The TATAs under-lined their keen interest in the state as a major investment destination, as they brought one of their strongest teams ever to visit a state on a business mission, headed by their Chairman Mr. Cyrus Mistry, comprising MD TRIL Mr. Sanjay Ubale, Members GEC TATA Mr. Madhu Kanan and Dr. Nirmalya Kumar, MD TATA Reality Mr. Phillip Karkaria, Head TATA Housing Mr. Shashi Kumar, Head Government TSUs Mr. Tanmay Charvarthy, Chairman TATA Skills Mr. HN Srinivas and others.
The Group also showed a strong inclination to join and supplement the efforts of the state government in taking the state to the next level of development in education, health infrastructure and e-governance, including on-line citizen delivery system, which forms the central component of governance reforms being spearheaded by Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Mr. Mistry gave an indication of the seriousness of purpose behind his visit when he showered liberal, praise on the state government, saying in his view the government was “not only the warmest and most spontaneous but also extremely serious and businesslike” in its approach, while addressing a meeting of his high-powered mission and top-ranking government officials of the state in the presence of the Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal and the Deputy Chief Minister.
The Chairman also spoke about large-scale projects with huge employment potential for local youth, saying that his Group believed in training and employing local youth for a mutually beneficial interaction. Significantly, this was Mr. Cyrus Mistry’s second visit to the state and his third meeting with the Chief Minister in less than six months, giving an indication of the proposed level of engagement that he foresees for his Group in development activity in the state. In addition, Mr. Mistry has also met the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal twice during this period.
The Chief Minister assured the Group Chairman that his government would “act fast” on development projects. For this, we have already set in motion a process known as ‘Governance Reforms’ aimed at cutting red tape and ensuring efficiency, transparency and accountability in decision making. Mr. Badal said that the Reserve Bank of India had rated Punjab as one of the three best investment destinations in the country. The state had the most congenial industrial relations and business climate and there was an atmosphere of complete peace and communal harmony in the state, something that was vital for investment and development. Infrastructure in the state has repeatedly been rated as the best in the country and so has been its profile as a rich consumerist state.
Expressing keenness to collaborate with the Tata Group in the fields ofRenewable Energy, Hotel Industry, On-line Citizen Service Delivery Portal, Model Townships, Bus Rapid Transport System as also e-Learning for School
Education, the Chief Minister said that he had already asked the concerned officers of the state government to interact with the team of the Tata Group to ensure that the said projects were in place. Mr. Badal said that
he was sure that such collaboration would go a long way in the development and industrialisation of the State and offer many more opportunities to its residents. He informed Mr. Mistry that the state government has recently approved a liberal Package of Incentives for attracting new Investments into the State.
Prominent amongst those present on the occasion included Cabinet Ministers Mr. Bikram Singh Majithia, Mr. Anil Joshi and Mr. Madan Mohan Mittal, Chief Secretary Mr. Rakesh Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. SK Sandhu, Principal Secretary Industries Mr. Karan Avtar Singh, Principal Secretary Education Mrs. Anjali Bhawra, Secretary Housing Mr. A Venuprasad, Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. KJS Cheema, Secretary Local Bodies Mr. Ashok Gupta, besides several other senior officers of the state government.