CII to help states on ease of doing business

It will help the state governments in promoting northern region as an agriculture and high-value food powerhouse

CII Chairperson Northern region Rumjhum Chatterjee on Tuesday said the industry body will work closely with state governments to help them improve the ranking in Ease of Doing Business during current financial year.

Besides, labour reforms, land and environment related issues will be major focus areas for the industry body this year, she said here.

"CII will also focus on e-filing of returns, online clearances, creating Land Banks for industry and reservation of certain percentage of Land Banks for SMEs," she said.

To promote Northern region as an agriculture and high-value food powerhouse, CII will also work with the state governments on a comprehensive policy reforms agenda.

"The reform agenda includes adoption of model APMC Act, fast-tracking investments in agriculture R&D and transfer of technology; making farm mechanisation affordable; promoting e-trading; building integrated infrastructure, introduction of land leasing to support commercial farming & entrepreneurship, incentives and support to farmers to go for crop diversification," Chatterjee said.

CII this year is also launching a unique holistic cluster development project called Sectoral Leadership Programme. It has identified three clusters to begin with. These include auto cluster in Faridabad, bicycle parts cluster in Ludhiana, and pharma cluster in Baddi, she said.

This year is Agro-Tech Year and CII hopes to present a holistic & emerging potential of the sector in the fair. Agro-tech is scheduled for November 19-22 in Chandigarh and will be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee, she said.