News in Times of India

Industry policy seeks to make Delhi IT hub
Dated: 5^th Jan. 10

NEW DELHI: The only claim to fame of Bap­rola vil­lage in west Delhi is that it’s home to Olympic bronze medal-winning wrest­ler Sushil Kumar. But that may soon change. Accord­ing to Delhi’s much-awaited indus­trial policy, cleared by the state cab­inet on Monday, two SEZs that it plans to set up in the vil­lage will show the path for future devel­op­ment of the national capital.

The policy, only the second for Delhi, seeks to an give an entirely new thrust and dir­ec­tion to indus­trial activ­ity in the city for the period 2010 to 2021. It says Delhi should develop a hi-tech, knowledge-based ser­vice sec­tor and IT and IT enabled ser­vices indus­tries in the NCT to replace the small, low-skilled man­u­fac­tur­ing units that dot the city today.

The policy lays spe­cial emphasis on devel­op­ment of the two SEZs at Bap­rola — one for gems and jew­ellery and the other for IT & ITES — as a showpiece for other indus­trial clusters to emu­late. These SEZs would be pollution-free indus­tries where work­ers would “walk to work” and get all amen­it­ies within the neighbourhood.

The first and only indus­trial policy before this was announced way back in 1982. Over the dec­ades, it seemed ill-equipped to handle the chan­ging eco­nomic scenario.

The two SEZs that the Delhi gov­ern­ment plans to set up in Bap­rola vil­lage in west Delhi will shape the way for future devel­op­ment of the cap­ital. The present policy seeks to make Delhi “a hub of clean, high-technology and skilled eco­nomic activ­it­ies by 2021 by adher­ing to the fol­low­ing prin­ciples: Infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment, decon­ges­tion, pro­mot­ing ‘walk to work’, sim­pli­fy­ing busi­ness norms, pro­mot­ing industry con­sulta­tion in decision mak­ing and sustainability”.

The policy calls for the set­ting up of a busi­ness facil­it­a­tion coun­cil. This body will com­prise mem­bers from indus­trial asso­ci­ations, DSIIDC, DDA, MCD and other stake­hold­ers to facil­it­ate entre­pren­eurs in obtain­ing clear­ances from vari­ous depart­ments and agen­cies for set­ting up enter­prises. Accord­ing to offi­cials, this would aid in resolv­ing the prob­lem of mul­ti­pli­city of organizations.

Gov­ern­ment offi­cials say the two SEZs com­ing up at Bap­rola will be mod­els for future indus­trial growth. Last month, the Union com­merce min­istry gave formal approved to the projects.

The gems and jew­ellery SEZ is being set up in an area of 41.4 acres at an estim­ated Rs 489 crore. The SEZ is expec­ted to provide dir­ect jobs to 18,000 people and indir­ect employ­ment to 54,000 people. Delhi con­trib­utes to 10% of the country’s exports in this sector.

The IT and ITES SEZ is being set up in an area of 26 acres at an estim­ated cost of Rs 395 crore. This SEZ is expec­ted to provide dir­ect employ­ment to 36,000 people while gen­er­at­ing 1,08,000 jobs indir­ectly. The IT SEZ will also house con­ven­tion halls, hotels, a hos­pital and res­id­en­tial accommodation.

The ser­vice industry con­trib­utes the largest chunk of the state domestic product: about 70% fol­lowed by man­u­fac­tur­ing (25.2%) and agri­cul­ture (3.85%). The city has large num­ber of gar­ment and fur­niture units fol­lowed by elec­trical machinery pro­duc­tion and repair ser­vices. Man­u­fac­tur­ing in Delhi remains small scale and low-skilled, attract­ing migrants from neigh­bour­ing areas.

NEW INDUSTRIAL POLICY OF DELHI

All the decisions taken recently by the Delhi gov­ern­ment seems to be path break­ing in nature. “In many ways, the gov­ern­ment ini­ti­at­ives seem to accept ground real­it­ies, and cre­ate legis­la­tion favour­ing faster growth”, says Ramesh Menon of Certes Realty Ltd.

In the words of Mr. Chetan Sanghi, Man­aging Dir­ector of Delhi state Indus­trial and Infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment cor­por­a­tion (DSIIDC) ‘an indus­trial policy for the national cap­ital of Delhi is being framed, for the first time, since 1982′.

“We are tak­ing the tech­nical expert­ise of Bur­eau of Energy effi­ciency to pro­mote all round energy sav­ings in gov­ern­ment, insti­tu­tional, indus­trial and house­hold sec­tors of Delhi”, said Chetan Sanghi.

The vis­ion is to enhance the eco­nomic activ­ity in the national cap­ital through clean, hi-technology and skilled activ­it­ies. “A draft policy pre­pared by the gov­ern­ment would soon be released”.

Ajay Dabas, an ana­lyst on the Delhi mas­ter plan sums up this move as a wel­come step towards Delhi gain­ing it’s right­ful pos­i­tion as the busi­ness hub of India. Per him, “The sur­round­ing mar­kets of Gur­gaon, NOIDA etc. grew dur­ing the last dec­ade since Delhi did not cre­ate enough sup­ply of oppor­tun­it­ies for entre­pren­eurs & MNC organ­iz­a­tions to use the tal­ent pool of Delhi”.

DSIIDC has signed an MOU with BEE already and this open up new vis­tas of coöper­a­tion between the two agen­cies. The cor­por­a­tion would also help indus­tries to avail car­bon cred­its, says Sanghi.

“It is really a myth that Delhi doesn’t have the land resources to have robust Indus­trial & eco­nomic activ­ity. In view of the need for hon­our­ing the green Delhi ini­ti­at­ive, Delhi can & should encour­age the growth of soft indus­tries, esp. IT & ITES”, says Menon.

INDUSTRIAL POLICY VISION OF DELHI – MPD 2021

“Make Delhi a hub of clean, high-technology and skilled eco­nomic activ­it­ies by 2021 by adher­ing to fol­low­ing basic principles:

• Infra­struc­ture Development
• Decon­ges­tion
• Pro­mot­ing ‘Walk to Work’
• Sim­pli­fy­ing Busi­ness &
• Sus­tain­ab­il­ity”

The basic role of the gov­ern­ment will be to ensure bet­ter plan­ning of the indus­trial assets, build­ing good qual­ity basic infra­struc­ture and act­ing as a busi­ness facilitator.

For a detailed dis­cus­sion on the NEW DRAFT INDUSTRIAL POLICY OF DELHI, released for pub­lic opin­ion in Nov’ 2009, please con­tact Ramesh Menon on 99100 – 54949.