Govt creating conducive atmosphere for budding entrepreneurs: Ganga

TNN Bureau. Updated: 1/19/2017 7:51:13 PM Jammu and Kashmir

Assembly passes grants of Industries & Commerce Deptt

‘Several initiatives taken to give fillip to industrial growth; 11094 kanals of identified for new industrial estates’


JAMMU, JANUARY 19: The Minister for Industries and Commerce Chander Parkash Ganga today said that the Industries and Commerce Department contributes more than 25% to the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and the government is making efforts to increase it manifold in coming years.
Winding up the discussion on demand of grants for the departments under his charge, the Minister said the Government has introduced effective measures to create conducive atmosphere for entrepreneurs interested in setting up business units thereby contributing in improving the industrial growth of the State.
The Minister said the Government is making diligent efforts to generate employment opportunities through establishment of micro industrial units in rural as well as urban areas. He said under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) and various other employment schemes benefits have been provided to the unemployed youth of the state. Under PMEGP a total of 11691 youth in the State under this bank tie-up scheme with margin money of Rs 171.49 crore provided by GoI ending March, 2016 have benefitted, he added.
This has resulted in creation of direct and indirect employment opportunities for a total of 60882 persons and the consolidated figures for the current financial are expected to be much higher, he informed.
He said the New Industrial Policy, 2016 will pave way for a focused development in many sectors which have a high output potential in our state like food processing, silk reeling, wool and woven fabrics of wool, leather, pharmaceutical, wood based industries, computer/electronic, handicrafts and handloom. Under the policy, 10 percent land in various new industrial estates will be reserved for establishment of Micro/Small units; besides special provision of land reservation to facilitate women entrepreneurs, he added. He said that the detailed procedural guidelines for the same are being framed and will come out soon.
With regards to the establishment of new Industrial Estates in the state, the Minister said that this is a priority matter for the state and many steps have been introduced on the ground for the same.
“We have already identified 11094 kanals of state land in various parts of the state for establishment of industrial estates in addition to the existing 53 industrial estates in the state spread over an area of 31335 kanals and the 29 industrial estates which are under different stages of development”, the Minister said.
He added that the Government is also focusing on up-gradation of infrastructure of various Industrial Estates at a cost of Rs 138 crore and the project for which has already been approved, he said.
Enumerating other initiatives taken by department to boost the industrial sector in the State, the Minister said that an MOU has also been signed between state government and the Indian Council for Leather Exports for establishment of common facility centre for leather cluster at industrial estate, Lassipora to facilitate the entrepreneurs to set up the Leather Goods manufacturing units there besides land measuring 80 kanals at Industrial Estate, Samba has been transferred to the Ministry of MSME, GoI for setting up of Technology Centre and 80 kanals of land has been transferred to J&K Science and Technology Department for setting up of a Biotechnology Park at Industrial Estate, Ghatti in Kathua.
The Minister also said that the department is also working continuously to impart skill development training to them and for this department is running multiple institutes including Entrepreneur Development Institute (EDI), Indian Institute of Carpet Technology (IICT) and Craft Development Institute (CDI) besides running 553 Training Centres of Handicraft department and 109 training centres of Handloom Department.
The department is also providing training to the people in various crafts like Sozni, Crewel, Papier Machie, Phulkari, Zari, Chain Stitching etc, readymade garments, handloom, spinning, weaving and Kani shawl weaving etc besides running training programmes under Entrepreneurship Awareness Programme (EAP), Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) and Entrepreneurship Orientation Programme (EOP).
Listing measures in place for handloom and handicraft sector, the Minister informed that various schemes like Integrated Handloom Development Scheme, Mahatma Gandhi Bima Bunkar Yojna, 10 percent special rebate on sale of Handloom Scheme, loan for projects, modernization, renovation of looms and loan assistance to cooperative societies have been launched that have produced desired results.
The Minister said that Government will also be introducing an e-commerce platform to link 20000 artisans and weavers of the State with the potential buyers.
“This will increase the exports of handicrafts and handloom products from the current level by Rs 1000 crore annually besides serving the prime objective of minimizing the exploitation of the multiple steps of middleman ship and steps are also being taken to uplift the socio-economic condition of people linked to the traditional trades like labour intensive handicrafts and handloom sectors”, he added.
For textile development, the Minister said that Artisans Credit Card scheme alone has so far benefitted about 41320 Artisans with soft loans up to Rs 1 lakh with interest subvention of 10 percent provided by the Government. The Department has also undertaken distribution of Modern Carpet Looms free of cost to the carpet weavers registered with them.
For revival of Silk Factory Rajbagh and Bemina Woolen Mills, the Minister said that separate Composite Market Centre for whole chain of silk activity and Composite Market Centre for whole chain of wool activity has already been formulated and is being funded by the World Bank respectively.
The Minister informed the House that the Department is striving to make the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) vibrant and profit making by restructuring, reviewing the business plans and down-sizing.
Ganga informed the House, that government is committed to make judicious and optimal use of its rich resources including lime stone, gypsum, marble, granite, quartzite.
Cross-LoC trade has been an essential faction for the trading community of the state, especially for the border districts and Government is taking various steps to make trade easier and modern, including creation of banking facilities and opening of more routes, the Minister said.
Later, the House passed the grants of Industries and Commerce department for the year 2017-18 moved by the Minister, amounting to Rs 55903.10 lakh with voice vote.
Earlier, several legislators took part in the Discussion on Demand of Grants for Industries and Commerce Department including Mubarak Gul, Abdul Rahim Rather, Rajeev Jasrotia, Asgar Ali Karbalaie, Hakeem Muhammad Yaseen Shah, Sheikh Ishfaq Jabbar, Bashir Ahmad Dar, Noor Mohammad Sheikh, Sat Paul Sharma, GM Saroori, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Altaf Ahmad Wani, Devinder Singh Rana, Mohammad Akbar Lone, Shah Muhammad Tantray and Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari.


Comment on this Story