The Centre has begun to sharpen its focus on improving ease of doing business at the districts level, having achieved some improvement at both the Central and State levels.

As a pilot, six districts in five States have been selected for development schemes that will increase district GDP by 3 per cent. Once the pilot is successful, it will be replicated pan India, said Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry.

By making districts a focal point of growth and increasing their GDP by 2-3 per cent, the country’s GDP will grow automatically. Districts’ growth is critical for the country’s overall growth, he said while inaugurating ACMEE2018, the 13th international machine tools exhibition organised by the Ambattur Industrial Estate Manufacturers’ Association.

Nearly 480 companies from 28 countries are participating in the five-day exhibition, which focusses mainly on productivity and automation, he said.

New industrial policy

On the new industrial policy to be unveiled shortly by the Centre, Prabhu said the two major components in it would be to modernise existing industries and bring in new ones. The first industrial policy, announced in 1956, was a socialistic one, with the government doing everything. The second, in 1992, was done under severe stress on foreign exchange and balance of payment, he said.

Later, speaking at an interactive session with the trade organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (Southern Region), Prabhu said private sector investment was low in the last few years because capacity utilisation was at 65 per cent and this did not allow fresh investment to meet additional demand. However, now that capacity utilisation in some industries is higher than 90 per cent, there will be a significant increase in private sector investment, he said.

Public investment has been quite significant under this government, said Prabhu. For example, in the Railways, in the first 70 years after Independence, the cumulative investment was ₹3 lakh crore. However, in the first three years of the present government, the investment was ₹2.75 lakh crore. It is a similar case with roads, airports and ports, he said.

On the global trading system, Prabhu said for the first time “we are seeing a real challenge to WTO and the trading system itself. Countries are putting road blocks and this is going to be real issue that we need to address.” India is trying to be friendly with all the countries, he said. “We have no enemies as far as trade is concerned.”

Later speaking to newspersons, Prabhu said during his meeting with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, he urged the State government to come out with a start-up policy.

“I have discussed with the Chief Minister to start another big airport for Chennai on a few hundred acres of land. This will be one of the the biggest airports in India,” he said.

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