Upgradation of industrial infra to help attract investors: Experts

The government's announcement to upgrade industrial infrastructure and provide information on ranking of industrial parks will help the country attract both domestic and foreign potential investors, according to experts.

Last week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that a scheme will be implemented in states for industrial cluster upgradation of common infrastructure facilities and connectivity.

She also said information related to land bank for promoting new investments would be available on Industrial Information System with GIS mapping.

"Lot of global corporations are envisaging interest in India as their manufacturing hub. The government's industrial information system (IIS) will provide an easy ready reckoner for global investors to set up their manufacturing locations in India, generating significant employment in the process," G M Rao, Group Chairman, GMR Group, said in a statement.

He said the finance minister's announcements on upgrading the industrial infrastructure and providing a system to make available information and ranking of industrial parks is a welcome initiative.

Rao added that India has been improving on the ease of doing business index over the past five years and coupled with the Make-in-India call, the country is becoming an attractive investment destination for the world.

Industry chamber PHDCCI said the announcement on industrial clusters' upgradation along with releasing rankings of industrial parks in 2020-21 and ranking of states on investment attractiveness will go a long way in transforming the industrial sector with improved common infrastructure facilities and connectivity.

Sharing similar views, Mohammad Athar, Partner -Economic Development and Infrastructure, PwC India, said quality of industrial infrastructure is critical for attracting large scale FDI and domestic investments.

Upgrading existing industrial infrastructure, providing information on parks and mapping them on GIS will help investors in identification of location. Besides, promoting competitiveness among states by ranking industrial parks will pave the way for standardisation of approach towards industrial ecosystem creation, he said.

Another industry expert stated that as several global companies are looking for an alternate destination to China for setting up manufacturing facilities, these announcements will help India to attract those potential investors.