Record number of MoUs have been signed recently: CII North Zone chief

Q&A with Rumjhum Chatterjee, President, CII's North Zone

Rumjhum Chatterjee, MD of Feedback Infra recently took charge as the President of the Confederation of Indian Industry's North Zone. She tells Subhayan Chakraborty why the North Zone is seeing a resurgence in industrial growth and how equitable distribution in investment and industrialization can be brought about in the region.

There is a large variation in the rate of industrial growth in the northern region with states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand lagging behind others. How do you hope to address this?

Some states in the Northern Zone have traditionally been very progressive when it comes to business and industry, but we find that even the others are eager to engage with business. The recent culture of competitiveness generated between the states have also helped. In this regard, the investor summits are crucial and we support the states in showcasing their unique advantages.

How do you feel international investors are viewing the Northern region as a whole and not just states like Gujarat and Rajasthan?

There is a surge in interest. A record number of MoUs have been signed in recent times in the area. While all of these might not fructify into actual investments later, the record amount of investments committed — Rs 5 lakh crore in Haryana, Rs 3.3 lakh in Rajasthan and more than Rs 1 lakh crore in Punjab, speak for themselves."

What about domestic investment?

I will go on record to say even that is rising. Interestingly, the majority of such new investments are in the small and medium enterprises category, which has steadily been increasing in spite of the recent economic slowdown. According to our projections, they will clock a growth of more than 10% this financial year. And this is an employment intensive industry."

Apart from Gujarat and Rajasthan, how do you see other states dealing with the issue of availability of land?

Land is available in all states but the lack of their identification makes for a difficult scenario. However, Haryana and Rajasthan have committed to create land-banks. Punjab is also coming up with land banks in some of the pockets."

Regarding the recent Jat agitation that gripped Haryana, do one-of incidents like this really affect the long term prospects of running a business in a particular area?

Other than the general loss of productivity and added risks of damage to property, such events really affect international investors who get apprehensive over the climate.