March 3, 2011 in Investment Destinations by admin
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand was formed on the 9th November 2000 as the 27th State of India, when it was carved out of northern Uttar Pradesh. Located at the foothills of the Himalayan mountain ranges, it is largely a hilly State, having international boundaries with China (Tibet) in the north and Nepal in the east. On its north-west lies Himachal Pradesh, while on the south is Uttar Pradesh. It is rich in natural resources especially water and forests with many glaciers, rivers, dense forests and snow-clad mountain peaks. Char-dhams, the four most sacred and revered Hindu temples of Badrinath,Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri are nestled in the mighty mountains. It’s truly God’s Land (Dev Bhoomi). Dehradun is the Capital of Uttarakhand. It is one of the most beautiful resort in the submountain tracts of India, known for its scenic surroundings. The town lies in the Dun Valley, on the watershed of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers.
It is blessed with a rare bio-diversity, inter-alia, 175 rare species of aromatic & medicinal plants are found in the State. It has almost all major climatic zones, making it amenable to a variety of commercial opportunities in horticulture, floriculture and agriculture. It has a vast tourism potential in adventure, leisure, and eco-tourism.
The State is rich in mineral deposits like limestone, marble, rock phosphate, dolomite, magnesite, copper, gypsum, etc. The number of small scale industries is 25,294 providing employment to 63,599 persons. As many as 1802 heavy and medium industries with an investment of Rs 20,000 crore employ 5 lakh persons. Most of the industries are forest-based. There is a total of 54,047 handicraft units in the state.
With levels of literacy higher than the national average, the State has abundant availability of quality human resources. Within a short span of its existence, Uttarakhand has emerged as a significant destination for investments in manufacturing industry, tourism and infrastructure. Emphasis is on stimulating all three sectors of its economy (agriculture, industry and services),to their fullest potential in tandem with the geographic profile of the state.
Investment Policies and Incentives
The Government of Uttarakhand has framed several policies, so as to create a conducive environment for attracting investments into the State. The policy documents include various incentives and schemes for the investors. They largely aim at generating employment opportunities, improving the overall quality of life of the people and providing them with basic infrastructural facilities. They unveil a roadmap for bolstering the industrial climate of the State and facilitate the inflow of capital into the economy.
The major being the industrial policy, which was framed in the back-drop of potentialities and expectations of the newly created State. The policy focused on the sectors where the State has inherent advantages, like tourism, hydro-power, floriculture, agro and food processing,handloom, khadi and village industries, etc. Its aim is to provide a comprehensive framework to enable a facilitating, investor friendly environment for ensuring rapid and sustainable industrial development in Uttarakhand and through this, to generate additional employment opportunities and to bring about a significant increase in the State Domestic Product and eventual widening of the resource base of the State.
Another important policy is the information and communication technology policy, aims to provide a policy framework for effective infusion and management of ICT for achieving a genuine progress of the State in all its aspects. The vision of the policy is to have the State fully digitised that is a networked society where information flow and access across all sections of the society, enabled through effective ICT infrastructure, would propel the economic growth of the State, leading to a very high quality of life of its citizens. Through this policy framework, the Government of Uttarakhand proposes to harness the full power of ICT for bringing in accelerated social and economic development, ensure transparency in the Government decisions, accelerate the IT adoption amongst various user segments, thus leading to an ideal e-society model through efficient, service oriented, cost-effective, information networked, eco-conscious, and with year-on-year growth approach.
Besides, there is a biotechnology policy, which has been announced with a vision to deploy, use, exploit and leverage the biotechnology as an effective tool for catalysing accelerated economic growth by sustainably harnessing and converting the States biowealth into economic wealth on one hand and preserving the same on the other. To attain this overall goal, the objectives of the policy are:-
?To map the rich Biodiversity of the State, including land races and lesser known crops and create exhaustive/extensive data base to enable ex situ & in situ conservation, scientific management and prevent reckless exploitation.
?To intensify the R & D work in potential areas of Biotechnology and upgrade the infrastructure of R & D institutions to generate quality research and to foster industry linkages.
?To promote the human resource development in this field through upgradation of the existing as well as and setting up of new educational institutions.
?In the realm of Plant Biotechnology, leverage on the existing knowledge base to promote research, which meets the needs of Indian farmers becoming competitive and enable them to take advantage of what are today closely held technologies.
?To promote medicinal and aromatic plants/herbs of which abundance is found in Uttaranchal to enable their natural growth as well as scientific promotion of the pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and such other industries. To encourage the entire spectrum from low-end industries which are capable of going to the farmers field to the highest end.
?To spread awareness about the investment opportunities, in Biotechnology and allied sectors, in the state of Uttaranchal.
?To this end proactively promote setting up of Biotechnology industries in the State whether in a Industrial Estate mode or dispersed in smaller pockets throughout the State, and to outline a set of incentives and concessions for the BT industry to attract investment.
?To provide a suitable institutional framework which is a mix of the best available talents, with proactive Governmental support and facilitation.
Investment Opportunities
Uttarakhand has emerged as one of the most attractive industrial destinations in India. The Government is encouraging private participation in all industrial activities. The State with its vast natural resource base, large forest cover and enormous power potential holds the potential of being one of the most prosperous states in the country. Given the terrain of the state and favourable climatic conditions, agriculture continues to be the major source of income for more than three-fourths of the State’s population. The major thrust areas of the State of Uttaranchal are development of tourism, IT and biotechnology fields, particularly industries based on herbal and medicine plants, hydro power generation etc. Significant opportunities are available for the construction of industrial parks, specialised production zones for IT. The Government has established the State Infrastructure & Industrial Development Corporation of Uttaranchal Ltd (SIDCUL) to conceptualise, concretise and formulate the state’s industrial development. The corporation is the nodal agency and a single window, for Uttarakhand’s various schemes and programmes related to industry.
Information Technology
Given the state’s high literacy rate and concentration of high quality educational institutions across the districts, Uttarakhand has the potential for developing as a preferred destination for IT and ITES along with hardware production. Beside this, with the establishment of an STPI earth station at Dehradun and proposed Earth Station at other locations, the state offers high-speed connectivity. The state has come up with incentives for the industry like exemption on electricity duty on generator sets, stamp duty concessions and rationalisation of land use and conversion charges.
Handicrafts, Handloom, Wool Based Industry, Khadi & Village Industries
Uttarakhand is host to several handicrafts industries like carpet weaving, woodcarving, brassware and copper based industries. The state plans to revive these industries to ensure adequate backward and forward linkages by way of centrally sponsored schemes. Handloom industry is critical for employment generation in rural areas. The state plans to tap the potential of these skill-rich industries by way of infrastructure support, training, design development, new techniques, packing, marketing events and exhibitions. Wool and wax based industry and khadi and village industries are some of the key traditional industries operating in the state. While the wax-based industry is an important handicraft industry in the hill regions of the state, large section of the population in the state is associated with the wool based industry. The State has assigned due priority to develop these industries to their potential.
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is the emerging thrust area at the global level and is poised to make significant contributions in agriculture, human and animal health care, environment management and process industries. Being host to vast diversity of flora and fauna and rare species of plants and animals, gives Uttarakhand a natural advantage in the sector. A high-level biotechnology board is being setup to pursue initiatives in the field of research. The state will accord the units coming under this sector with the industry status and aims to establish an internationally competitive business infrastructure and environment for the industry in the state. Further, a biotechnology park is to be developed that will integrate resources and provide a focused institutional set up for accelerated commercial growth of bio-technology and bio-informatics. The Government is also in the process of creating an Exchange for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants to serve as a common platform for research institutions, technology developers and producers.
Agro and Food Processing Industry
The State Government will assist in establishing small & medium size Agro Parks, Food Parks etc., which will provide common infrastructure facilities for storage, processing, grading and marketing, thus ensuring that surplus fruits and vegetables do not go waste as at present. Four Agri Export Zones have already been declared under the AEZ scheme of the Government of India for Leechi, Horticulture, Herbs, Medicinal Plants and Basmati Rice. Further, efforts will continue to promote production for export and provide access to domestic and export markets for products from the State. Uttarakhand has been included in difficult area category by the Ministry of Food Processing Industry (MFPI), Government of India and hence units being set up in Uttarakhand will be eligible for higher incentives under the schemes of MFPI. The State Government is also providing matching subsidy for projects under various schemes of Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), National Horticulture Board (NHB), Ministry of Food Processing Industry (MFPI) and the Natural Medicinal Plant Board (NMPB).
Tourism
Uttarakhand, the Devbhumi (Land of the Gods) has attracted tourists and pilgrims from world over since time immemorial. Lying in the north of the vast and bountiful expanse of India, and cradled in the awesome beauty and calm serenity of the Stately Himalayas, it is an important tourist destination. Sacred pilgrimages of different religions including Haridwar and the world famous Char Dham or the four Hindu pilgrimage destinations of Shri Badrinath,Kedarnath,Gangotri,Yamunotri; the sacred Sikh pilgrimages of Hemkund – Lokpal, Nanakmatta and Meetha – Reetha Sahib; and, Piran Kaliyar have drawn pilgrims and seekers after spiritual fulfillment to Uttarakhand since ancient times. The rich cultural traditions, the rare natural beauty and the cool and invigorating climate of this land of origin of the Holy Ganga and Yamuna rivers have been its main attractions.
The unlimited tourism potential of Uttarakhand has, however, not been fully realized in the absence of a planned and coordinated strategy of tourism development. Inadequate capital investment in tourism infrastructure and limited private sector participation have been substantially responsible for this. Hence a tourism Policy had been announced by the Government in order to provide
a road-map for the development of tourism in the State. The policy aims to develop tourism as a major source of employment and income / revenue generation and as a pivot of the economic and social development in the State.
Infrastructure
Uttarakhand with its vast natural resource base, large forest cover and enormous power potential holds the potential of being one of the most prosperous states in the country. Uttaranchal compares favourably with the all India aggregates in term of the spread of basic infrastructural facilities. The creation of infrastructure itself within the state offers tremendous potential for private investment. For a potentially power rich state, generation, transmission and distribution of power provides vast investment opportunities.
