 "Hari Nair, CEO of HolidayIQ; Rajat Agrawal, CII Rajasthan CMD Gravita India; Veenu Gupta, Rajasthan principal secy; Gajendra Singh, Rajasthan industry minister & A K Bajoria, director & president JK Tyre at the BS Rajasthan Round Table 2016 i")
Singh said his government had taken initiatives and created a land bank of 10,000 hectares. “Polices of the government are pro-industry but we are still reeling under the debt of the previous (Congress) government. The power debt increased from Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 75,000 crore between the previous and the current dispensation,” Singh said at the Business Standard round table conference in the state capital.
Other panelists included Veenu Gupta, principal secretary, government of Rajasthan; Ashok Kajaria, chairman of Kajaria Ceramics; Hari Nair, founder and chief executive officer of HolidayIQ; A K Bajoria, director and president of JK Tyre and Industries; Rajat Agrawal, CII Rajasthan chairman and managing director of Gravita India. The other delegates were key policymakers and industrialists of the state.
Kajaria, who has two plants in Rajasthan, said although government policies are friendly, the state needs to market them aggressively to encourage more investment. “You must highlight the investment promised for the state. This will embolden other industrialists,” he said.
Of the Rs 400 crore promised investment in the state by 2017-18, Kajaria has already made investments of Rs 225 crore. Agarwal also aired the same grievances, saying most industrialists are unaware of the government’s single-window system.
Bajoria said Rajasthan was the most peaceful state of the five states where his company has significant presence. He suggested Rajasthan take cue from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh where the state governments incentivised investments in assets. “To attract higher investments in the state, the government can consider promotional incentives in terms of value added tax refund on goods produced and sold in the same state, up to an amount not exceeding the total value invested in eligible assets,” Bajoria said.
Veenu Gupta, who was the force behind the Resurgent Rajasthan Summit, which saw investment proposals worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore, said such schemes exist in the state for companies, which either invest Rs 400 crore or generate employment for 400 people. Gupta said once the goods and services tax is rolled out, it will create a level-playing field for all states. “This will test the actual potential of the states and their infrastructure. Currently, if one state announces some policy, the other competitive state comes out with a more lucrative policy, attracting investors,” she said.
Nair, who spoke extensively on the potential of tourism in Rajasthan, suggested the government tap its deserts for activity-based tourism and make the state a weekend getaway for people in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. He said the government ought to focus more on domestic travellers. “In 2014, India had only four million foreign tourists, whereas domestic tourists were around 300 million. Most of these tourists were from Tier-2 and -3 cities,” Nair said.
