Rajasthan emerging as India's premier industrial hub

Taking advantage of the Rajasthan government's industry-friendly policy, leading firms like Honda, Eicher-Polaris and Ambuja Cements have made huge investments and a number of firms are in the process of setting up shops in the state.

"Rajasthan government has come up with a plethora of policy initiatives in the last couple of years to create enabling investment climate which has in turn attracted huge investments to the state," said Naveen Mahajan, managing director, Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation (RIICO).

Mahajan was speaking at Invest North conclave organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.

"It is a state which is constantly on the move coming up with new initiatives like the new textile policy which has recently been announced. RIICO is also constantly upgrading its norms to reflect the new realities in the investment climate in the country so that the state can be the favoured choice of investors," he said.

Mahajan said Rajasthan will be the "old-new face of India" in the 21st century.

To turn this into reality, Mahajan said the government was taking multiple steps like -- enabling policy and regulatory environment, along with a focus on improving energy availability, promoting tourism and enhancing rail, road and air connectivity with Jaipur Metro, which is expected to become functional by next year.

Siddharth Mahajan, commissioner, Board of Investment Promotion, said the Rajasthan government has formulated several policies and schemes to facilitate private investment.

"Rajasthan is the only state in India to have an act on single window clearance - Rajasthan Enterprises Single Window Enabling and Clearance Act, 2011. It is the only state in India to have three international investment zones. Besides the existing Japanese Manufacturing Zone at Neemrana, an exclusive Korean Industrial Zone and will soon come up in the region of Alwar district in Rajasthan," he said.

Mahajan said a huge portion of the proposed $100-billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) would fall in Rajasthan that will create huge investment and business opportunities.

Dedicated Freight Corridor will pass through Phulera-Ajmer-Marwar. DFC is in planning stages and is to be constructed by 2016. Nearly 40 percent of the corridor will pass through Rajasthan.

Mahajan said the Rajasthan government has reserved one-third of its developed industrial area for small and medium enterprises to give a boost to the sector.

To facilitate proactive engagements with the investors, business-to-government meetings were organised on the sidelines of the conclave.

"The Rajasthan government officials during the business-to-government meetings requested interested companies to submit their business plans and proposals and also shared that the government is fully committed to bring investments in the state and solve the problems of industry with equal gravity," according to a statement issued by RIICO after the meeting.

Investment projects worth Rs.2,000 crore in different sectors like automobile, power, ceramics, waste and water management were discussed during the meeting.

"The meetings with senior state government officials also facilitated to remove the bottlenecks in investments and speed up the pace of development in the state," the statement said.