Kerala best place to start business: Chandy

Kerala is the "best" state in India to start business considering huge possibilities and opportunities offered by its fast growing cities and government support, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy today said.
Addressing investors at an interactive session organised as part of the two-day "Partner Kerala" urban development meet here, he said 'Kerala should create opportunities from within the state to revamp its infrastructure'.
Pointing out that youth in the state had started showing entrepreneurship capabilities, Chandy said recently introduced student entrepreneurship programme had received big response and the Kochi Start-up village was an example for this.
"Today, around 1,000 innovative business ideas are waiting to get an opportunity to be part of the start-up village. Even small ventures at the village have gained global attention," he said, adding, in the past, the government's ventures mainly focused on education, health and social development.

Though this helped the state to carve its own niche, Kerala lagged behind others in infrastructure development, he said.
On the huge turnout of investors at the Meet, Chandy said the government was seeking solid financial resources to turn the proposals presented at the meet into reality.

"Most of our popular ventures have been put on hold due to lack of funds. It is in this context, we decided to promote the public private partnership model," he said.
The Department of Urban Affairs would immediately make arrangements to strengthen the PPP cell to expedite the process of launching the projects.

Chandy said the projects would be given a single-window clearance by the respective local bodies to ensure that the projects were completed on time.
The state was waiting for the Centre" nod for the Kochi- Coimbatore industrial corridor, he said, adding, the government had reached a political agreement to build an electronic city at nearby Amballur, but some concerns regarding its impact on the environment needs to addressed.
The government will soon resolve issues relating to certain regions being included in zone-3 under the Coastal Regulatory Zone Act.
"There is some confusion with regard to the Act as many of the panchayats have been recently converted into Municipalities. The government is seriously looking into the issue and will do the needful soon," he said.