Extending his government’s full support to the industry to meet all their needs, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday pitched Punjab as a state that offered them a future, with the assurance of “peace and security” to protect their investments at all costs.
Capt Amarinder, addressing a galaxy of industry and business leaders at the valedictory session of the Progressive Punjab Investors Summit (PPIS) 2019, made it clear that his Government was prepared to change its decades-old policies to transform the State from an agricultural to an industrial economy.
Underlining the need for a much-needed change to prevent children from going out in search of greener pastures, Capt Amarinder declared, “We cannot continue with policies that are 50 years old. We have to change if we want to remain in the game.”
It was imperative to take Punjab in the direction of a progressive future, for the sake of the next generation, he asserted, expressing concern over the brain-drain from the State.
Speaking to the audience “man to man, a Punjabi to a Punjabi, and a Punjabi to those who will be Punjabis soon”, the Chief Minister said: “I’ll give you what you want...Tell me what’s needed, I’ll do everything that is needed (for facilitating the industry).”
“I hope you go from here convinced that we are committed to your welfare. We will give you security, we will ensure peace for you,” he said, pointing out that Punjab offered a conducive environment for industrial development, with a productive workforce “whose output is as good as anywhere in the world…in fact better.”
There are no labour problems in Punjab, no strikes, he added, reaching out to the honchos of industry and business groups.
“The Government is committed to the promotion of industry and investment and has already taken several measures on this count including facilitation of access to finance for MSMEs through an MoU with HDFC bank, which had completed disbursement of loans worth Rs 1100 crores till yesterday, approval to Punjab Right to Business Ordinance and creation of a State Ground Water Authority,” said the Chief Minister, amid applause.
The positive results of the government’s efforts over the past two years, said the Chief Minister, were visible in grounding investments worth over Rs 50,000 crore across different sectors including food processing, manufacturing and light engineering petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. “The electricity demand from industry sector has increased by 26 percent, which is also a direct indication of enhanced industrial activity in the State,” he said.
He added that Punjab Government had recently collaborated with STPI, ISB Mohali & and Punjab Technical University to set up (soft launch of the hub was done on September 30, 2019) a Startup Punjab Hub at STPI Mohali.
The new facility, spread over 1.40 lakh square feet of built up space, is one of the country’s largest incubation facility, he said, adding that under the Neuron initiative, three Centers of Excellence had been established in the hub to promote research and development across IoT, AI, Data Analytics, and Audio, Visual and Gaming.
PUNJAB EMBRACES INDUSTRY 4.0 TO UNLEASH NEW WAVE OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDUSTRIAL GROWTH
With Industry 4.0 unleashing a new industrial revolution, focused on technological investments, Punjab has opened a new wave of opportunities for industry in the State.
Setting the tone for ‘Industry 4.0’ session centered on theme of ‘Punjab: Changing Gears for Industry 4.0’, the state Principal Secretary (Science, Technology and Environment) RK Verma said that the State Government was facilitating the investment and growth of technology, under the Industrial and Business Development Policy 2017, to keep pace with the revolution.
The panelists, including PTC, India Head IoT/AI Business Raj Kiran, ISB Mohali Senior Associate Dean Chandan Chowdhury, Automation Industry Association director Anup Wadhwa, and Schneider Electric VP- Eco Struxure and Digital Pankaj Goyal, shared their ideas and spoke about technologies that could be used by the industry for the growth of production /quality enhancement etc.
Focusing on the MSMEs, the panelists appreciated that the growth of economy in the State of Punjab was contributed by about two lakh MSMEs and approximately 500 large and medium units. The presence of strong textile, food processing and light engineering sectors makes the industrial scenario a vibrant platform, they said.
The Industry 4.0 concept focuses on modernization of manufacturing process through integration of advanced technologies and physical production elements. It creates a fully digital value chain by the simultaneous use of communication, IT, data, physical elements etc.
PUNJAB’S TOURISM POTENTIAL IN LIMELIGHT
Despite witnessing unprecedented growth in domestic and foreign tourists’ arrival in the last decade, Punjab still has a great potential to become the tourist hub of South Asia, believed the panelists and delegates from across different segments in the tourism sector on Friday during the session on ‘Tourism in Punjab: Unlocking Tourism Potential of Punjab’.
Notably, Punjab has seen a phenomenal Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of nearly 30 percent in Foreign Tourist Arrivals and 27 percent in Domestic Tourist Arrivals over the period 2009-2018. Sri Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, popularly known as the Golden Temple, was awarded the most visited religious place in the world by the World Book of Records (WBR).
The state Principal Secretary (Tourism and Culture) Vikas Pratap said that Punjab witnessed arrival of 1.2 million foreign tourists and 44.5 million domestic tourists in 2018 because Punjab is known for its rich religious places, cultural heritage, traditional fairs and festivals, museums, memorials, cuisines, art and craft, farms and eco-tourism.
There was a discussion on new emerging area or theme in the tourism sector and the role of hospitality sector in increasing the tourism activities in any region.
DOCS DEMANDS MORE INTNL’ FLIGHTS FROM PUNJAB TO MAKE IT A MEDICAL TOURISM HUB
To harness Punjab’s massive potential to emerge as a medical tourism hub, the medicos on Friday call for more international flights from the State, which already has the state-of-the-art infrastructure, skilled manpower and government support to set up new multi-specialty hospitals, coupled with its vibrant hospitality sector.
Delegates at the session on ‘Developing Punjab into a hub of International and Domestic Medical Tourism’, stressed that the “only thing” the Punjab Government needs to do is to press upon the Central Government to bring more direct international flights in the State from CIS nations, such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and to cater to NRI populations in USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand, in order to attract NRI patients.
Punjab has six Medical Colleges, 13 Dental Colleges and a sizeable number of nursing colleges, besides all the major healthcare players like Fortis, Ivy, Max, Apollo, Medcard, Swift Hospital, Grecian, Global, Capitol, CMC, DMC, had their hospitals in the State.
New Medicity for medical eco-system over a projected area of 350 acres would be coming up by next year adjoining Chandigarh wherein prominent healthcare players were setting up their healthcare establishments.
Padma Bhushan Awardee Dr KK Talwar said that Punjab was already witnessing Medical Tourism from Central Asian nations, US, UK-based NRIs and from adjoining states such as Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
LEADING TEXTILE PLAYERS EYE MASSIVE GROWTH IN PUNJAB THROUGH TECHNOLOGY UPGRADATION & SKILLED MANPOWER
With the leading textile players eyeing massive growth in Punjab through technology upgradation and skilled manpower, the giants of the textile industry and delegates during the brainstorming panel discussion on ‘Punjab: New Destination for Garmenting and Technical Textiles’ on Friday maintained that the State need to developed local skilled manpower as it was currently mostly dependent upon the migratory labour.
The panelists spoke on various aspects of the textile industry, garment clusters, centre of excellence in apparel, technology advancement, skilled manpower, labour subsidy, use of information technology for growth, among others.
The participants agreed that there were ample opportunities for growth and investment in the textile sector in Punjab. However, they felt that the State needed to developed local skilled manpower as it was currently mostly dependent upon the migratory labour.
They also said that dissemination of knowledge by the textile giants, exchange of ideas and best practices to the others could do wonders for Punjab, to enable it to develop on the lines of Tirupur city, which leads the country in the textile sector.
Trident Group chairman and business tycoon Rajinder Gupta described Punjab the finest state for the textile sector, and stressed the need to promote cultivation of cotton, also called white gold, in the whole of Punjab.
CoE IN MICROELECTRONICS TO BE SET UP AT STPI MOHALI
Punjab Government on Friday signed a tri-party MoU to establish a Centre of Excellence in Microelectronics — Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Design to be established on the premises of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) in Mohali.
The MoU was exchanged by Punjab’s IT Department director Tanu Kashyap with the heads of Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL) and STPI during the panel discussion session on ‘IT/ITeS and ESDM — Emerging IT Technologies: Opportunities for Industry and State’ on the concluding day of ongoing Summit.
The state Principal Secretary (Finance) Anirudh Tewari said that Punjab is on way to transition from agri based to a technology-driven economy and has identified IT/ITES/ESDM as a thrust sector. The government is dedicatedly promoting this sector by offering special incentives over and above the non-thrust sectors and implementing state policy initiatives that support the industry, he said.
IIT Ropar director SK Das said that Punjab particularly Mohali emerging as innovative and researching hub in Information Technology based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and availability of semiconductor designing and manufacturing here.
AUTO GIANTS FIND PUNJAB’S POLICY REFORMS CONDUCIVE TO GROWTH OF MOBILITY SECTOR
Major auto giants on Friday appreciated the policy reforms taking place in Punjab, which was all set to pole vault to a new era in mobility.
Leading auto industry players, during a panel discussion on ‘Future of Mobility in Punjab-Challenges and Opportunities’, said that the conditions in the State were conducive for investment.
Hero Electric Vehicles Private Limited’s managing director Naveen Munjal said that policy reforms were indeed taking place in state, thus helping to create a perfect platform for the automobile industry to invest here.
Expressing similar views, Volvo Group’s president and managing director Kamal Bali said that the automobile industry has witnessed a sea change during the past few years, and Punjab had the potential to produce more industrial units that could change the scenario in industrial sector.
Sharing his ideas about the future of mobility sector in Punjab, Hyperloop One’s managing director (India and Middle East) Harjinder Dhaliwal underlined the importance of using high-end technology to ease traffic woes.
SML Isuzu’s CFO Gopal Bansal said: “We should look forward to switch over to electric vehicles from the diesel-based battery operated vehicles.”
Bicycle Industry tycoon Naveen Munjal said: “We have planned expansion at our current electric 2W facility at Ludhiana to ramp up production to 5 five lakh units annually.”
