TN’s innovative land pooling will spur industrialisation

Vikram Kapur, Principal Industries Secretary, at a FICCI committee meeting on Thursday, said the state was looking at getting direct feedback from industries to improve its position in the ease of doing business index set by the Government of India in coordination with the World Bank. The methodology differed with the one adopted for the earlier ranking. 

Noting that the parameters involved in arriving at the latest ranking were quite complicated needing a large number of compliances, he said various reasons including elections were causes for not being able to submit the results on time. “We are in compliance with most parameters but unfortunately, TN could not attain the ranking it could have achieved,” he said, citing the prevailing robust industrial climate of the state owing to the favourable factors such as availability of land, power, highly skilled workforce, peaceful industrial relations, infrastructure and good connectivity. 

It is still among the top three investment destinations, he said, adding steps were being taken to ensure that TN gets the ‘numero uno’ position. When it comes to compliance or evidence, they were in the right format. So, even if there is another change in methodology from the Centre, the state would gear up as and when it was notified with emphasis on user feedback. 

“The voice of the industry has not been appropriately captured. We will give greater weightage to  its feedback,” Kapur said, adding the state had various plans afoot to forge ahead. The current buzz is to go for a corridor approach, he said noting that two such corridors that were being discussed were Chennai-Bengaluru and Chennai-Kanniyakumari as between the two, the entire state would be covered. With Japanese co-operation, agencies were working towards setting up three industrial nodes. The Ponneri node to link Tiruvallur, Vellore districts is advantageous given the locational and accessibility factors. The Kanniyakumari corridor would involve Asian Development Bank which envisages six industrial nodes. This would relatively develop the south of TN wherein the Madurai-Thoothukudi corridor and the belts of Ramnathapuram, Cuddalore, Tiruchy and  Coimbatore would be covered by such nodes. 

Large swathes of land were already being acquired. Apart from the state and the Centre which were using special purpose vehicles for executing infrastructure projects, the private sector could also look at developing infrastructure services which will help in the integrated development of the region. “As per the stated policy of the government we are creating land banks and of the 54,000 acres of land, we have reached the half-way mark. Acquisition is going on but the 2013 land  acquisition act guidelines in terms of meeting the procedures were proving to be the reasons for time taken in creating land banks,” Kapur said. To get out of this, TN had come up with an innovative pooling model that will enable land owners and industry to come together. Such a model of pooling land that was tried successfully in Gujarat will prove to be a win-win for all stakeholders, he pointed out. 

“We are not content with providing the core infrastructure,” he said, seeking the need to market the state more effectively through a proactive approach. It has to be a round-the-year activity and not event-based, he added. Aerospace or defence manufacturing requires infrastructure or eco-system to be developed for which large anchor investors need to be attracted. Therefore, the need to collaborate and identify sectors, areas, infrastructure gaps and investments required were imperative, Kapur noted. 

Observing that the state is passing through turbulent times and is at the cusp of certain tax reforms, he said the impending GST had to be understood in its entirety. The industry body had to collaborate with the government so that policies can give a direction and enable TN to reach the pinnacle – of being the most industrialised or the numro uno state in the country.

Despite demonetisation and other factors, for the current quarter, Tamil Nadu revenues had grown by 10 per cent whereas West Bengal’s had dropped by 30 per cent.  “This is a robust happening,” said Tamil Nadu Education Minister K Pandiarajan at a FICCI meeting here, seeking to point out that such an achievement was possible inspite of a regime change and the state losing one of the country’s tallest leader. 

“But the revenues are going strong,” he said, noting that this only reflected the “resilience and robustness” of the state’s overall economy. TN was ahead in industry and agriculture growth owing to the innovative models it had been embracing from time to time. Be it the industrial estate concept or the industrial cluster or even the corridors, TN had all policies in place for a strong industrial development. But now, the need to recognise the “unmined gems” and the raw entrepreneurial spirit and strength of the state had arisen, the minister said, citing examples. An entity based out of Rameswaram, housing 30 industrial units, was able to generate Rs 45 crore revenue by making bangles out of conch shells. These were being supplied to West Bengal. This unit, employing over 200 people, had 99 per cent of the market share by making value-added products from conch shells. “There are many unsung clusters that have tremendous competitive advantage,” Pandiarajan said, adding he came to know of it once the issues faced by such units were brought to his notice. Similarly Karur unit produced mosquito nets  that provided employment for around 5,000 people and it had 90 per cent market share. 

The minister said it is time to evaluate the competency basis of TN, by looking at clusters that confer this competitive advantage.