Punjab Government to Leverage New Industrial Park Policy to Boost PPP: Vini Mahajan

By Samachar Vishesh News

Chandigarh 06^th Aug:- The state has received more than 5000 crores of new investments in the last two years and further aims to leverage its New Industrial Park Policy to boost public-private partnerships, said Vini Mahajan, Additional Chief Secretary, Industries, Commerce & Investment Promotion, Government of Punjab at the 3^rd Edition of CII Conference on Achieving Excellence in Manufacturing, organised here today.

She also invited CII to support the state machinery in meeting its intended development goals by ensuring that the industry members make the best use of the structured policy framework provisioned by the government. She added that Punjab government aspires to provide an enabling ecosystem for industrial growth and is aggressively working towards skill development, provisioning employment, supporting start-ups as well as building quality infrastructure.

Rajat Agarwal, CEO, Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion said that adoption to changing technology, up-skilling of human resources as per contemporary requirements and financial inputs are the three major factors that impact the growth of our industry. He also informed the participants that the industry incentive structure of Punjab government is based on up-gradation, diversification, expansion & modernization of its units. He further mentioned that rendering support to MSMEs, boosting industry competitiveness, ensuring quality compliance, revival of sick units and conducting R&D activities are key focus areas of the policy makers in the state.

Kamal Bali, President & Managing Director, Volvo Group India, said that the manufacturing industry, considered the backbone of any emerging economy, contributes only 15 per cent share in India’s GDP which should rise to 25 per cent in the coming years. Focusing on manufacturing creates a cycle that runs on its own, offering overall sustainability and progress to a country. However, this is the era of collaborations and partnerships and support from the government is paramount. Real and innovative incentives, easy financing, ease of doing business in manufacturing, are some of the areas where requisite support from the government is required.

He added that moreover, it is time for us to change our asset-led business model to idea-led business model as the customers today do not seek products but solutions and outcomes. There is a need to develop the skill set as 48% of skills we have today would become redundant in the next 5 to 7 years.

M M Singh, Executive Advisor, Maruti Suzuki India Limited highlighted that a business can increase its productivity by 20-30 per cent and can also reduce its cost at the same rate just by revisiting their own practices and operational procedures. He further added that quality of output and safety of the workforce are two critical parameters in any production unit. M M Singh suggested the participants that it is imperative to give the requisite safety and watch the work environment in which the human capital operates. He also mentioned that we must not only incline ourselves to replicate global trends, rather work towards creating our own footprints.

Harish Chavan, Chairman, CII Punjab State and CEO, Mahindra & Mahindra (Swaraj Division) said that we require to build and adopt flexible business models and be extremely careful about what to automate and how to automate in our production units. He further opined that the manufacturing industry is encountering drastic challenges and most of the manufacturing entities are not fully aware as to how they can increase their internal competitiveness.

Vijay Kalra, CEO – MVML & Chief of Manufacturing Operations–Auto Sector Mahindra & Mahindra Limited expressed his opinion by saying that skill is a huge differentiator in using technology & innovation to one’s advantage. He further mentioned that perfection is gradually becoming a reality in this competitive era and it’s almost impossible to forecast the growth trends with determination. He advised the attendees of the conference to be alert and only adopt technical changes which are relevant to their business lines and not blindly follow what is popular.