Kerala targets 7.5 per cent annual growth

State to celebrate September 12 as Entrepreneurship Day

The Kerala government in its draft perspective plan has set an annual economic growth of 7.5 per cent in the state.

The plan aims at taking Kerala to the same level as the more advanced Nordic countries by 2040. This was announced by state governor, Nikhil Kumar, in his opening address at the 10th session of Assembly, which commenced today.

He said consistent with the development ambitions of the state, the size of the 12th Five Year Plan was pegged at Rs 102,000-crore, which is higher by 150 per cent than the previous Five Year Plan.

The State Planning Board has prepared the first draft of the Perspective Plan, 2030. The primary focus of the government in the Plan expenditure will be on the quality of expenditure and a new software, 'Plan Space', has been commissioned to monitor both financial and physical progress of implementation.

The government will design special packages in the annual plans for addressing the development issues of backward districts like Wayanad, Kasaragod and the coastal and hill areas.

A high-powered committee would be constituted to identify problems of the most backward areas of the state and to address them specifically.

He said Kinfra would forge ahead with the establishment of industrial development zones at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode and Kannur.

To encourage manufacturing of high priority electronic products two electronic manufacturing clusters would be established at Kochi with the assistance of the Union government.

More professionals would be inducted into the state PSUs for improving the managerial efficiency of these companies. In 2012-13, PSUs under the industries department had paid Rs 34 crore as dividend to the state's exchequer.

The government will organise a B2B meet at Kochi this year for showcasing and improving the marketability of the MSME sector. In the traditional sector, government intends to introduce innovative strategies to brand various traditional products.

Availability of funds and raw materials would be ensured for providing more working days to the employees of cashew, handloom, bamboo and handicraft sectors.

The Governor said the e-district project had been rolled out in all the 14 districts and 5.2 million digitally signed certificates had been disbursed through these centres.

Through the service plus software, more than 500 services would be brought under the e-Governance umbrella.

Leads the country in Aadhaar enrolment
With 98 per cent of the people in the state enrolled in Aadhaar, the state leads the country here. The state now targets to provide all beneficiary payments directly to the Aadhaar-linked bank accounts.

The government intends to provide budget support to young entrepreneurs with innovative ideas for setting up new enterprises under the entrepreneur support scheme. To encourage entrepreneur culture, every year, September 12 will be celebrated as the entrepreneurship day in the state.

The Startup Village launched in 2012 at Kochi would help incubate 1,000 startups over the next 10 years. The Kerala Technology Innovation Zone would be established at the Kinfra Hi Tech Park at Kalamassery, near Kochi, he added.

The first block of the Smart City Kochi with an area of 650,000 sft is expected to be ready by March 2015 and would provide jobs to 12,000 professionals.