Uttar Pradesh moots Industrial Services Guarantee Act

For speedy clearance to industries, Uttar Pradesh will soon introduce an Industrial Services Guarantee Act with accountabilities and penalties, officials said Friday.

The draft of the Act is in an advanced stage and will be announced soon after clearance from the chief minister's office.

A delegation of various Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and venture capitalists from India and abroad met senior officials of the Uttar Pradesh government Thursday and was briefed about the Act.

Facilitated by Ambit Capital, the twenty-member group attended a comprehensive interactive session with officials of the Infrastructure and Industrial Development Department (IIDD) and Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC).

Principal Secretary IIDD, Surya Pratap Singh said, "Home to twenty crore people, the huge consumer base will drive growth in Uttar Pradesh" and added that nothing can stop market forces to spur development here.

He added that Uttar Pradesh was one of the few states which have grown at seven per cent in the last five years.

Emphasising on the rural population in the state and challenges ahead on industrial development, Singh stated, "Rural markets in UP are the key as they are untapped, waiting to be penetrated."

Initiating the dialogue, Saurabh Mukherjee, CEO-Institutional Equity of Ambit Capital, asked about the reasons behind UP's stellar economic growth numbers in the last five years, the challenges vis-a-vis the investment climate in the state and the steps the government was taking to address the same.

Responding to these queries, Managing Director of PTC Industries, Sachin Agarwal said that contrary to general perception his company had not lost a single man-day in the Lucknow unit in many years and attrition was the second lowest in the country.

"We appreciate the change in approach of the new government in last one and a half year, it is the most opportune time to invest here," he added.

Sharing his experience in Lucknow, Jayant Krishna, principal consultant of Tata Consultancy Services, said that experience of TCS here had been extremely good and productivity figures of the unit in Lucknow matched the best of TCS centres elsewhere.

He said that not many people knew that the second largest plant of Tata Motors was in Lucknow.

Ambrish Bakaya, vice president of Samsung Electronics said, "In a welcome change from last regime, business climate in the state is rapidly changing as the senior officers of government are moving out and reaching out to industries to resolve their issues."