Ring-fencing a challenge: Industrial parks may help attract investment

The latest policy is certainly an upgraded attempt to push the envelope in attracting investment

The government’s industrial parks policy, cleared by the Cabinet this week, is one of the most ambitious efforts to create business-friendly zones since the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Act of 2005. The Rs 28,600 crore package to set up 12 such enclaves is intended to create what Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal called a “golden quadrilateral” of industrial parks, invoking Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s successful road-building project. The plan is to work with state governments and the private sector to set up “plug-and-play” integrated smart industrial cities with residential and commercial zones. The target is to attract