More to do, says Gujarat Inc

While the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat is celebrating its first anniversary today, industries and businesses feel that during the last one year, the government has made efforts to make the state investor-friendly and become more professional.

While Modi on Sunday said his government has a long way to go, industries believe that more sops for the small-scale industries, bringing down the electricity tariff and more industry-friendly measures are some crucial initiatives that the government should take.

"What we have observed in the last one year is that the government has been sincerely trying to play the role of a facilitator unlike the two earlier governments. This government is more professional in its outlook comparing to the earlier governments. But we expect more sops for the small-scale industries which provide employment to a large number of people and generate good revenue," Shreyas Pandya, president of the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), said.

"We also expect the government to bring down the high electricity tariff for more investments and development of the existing industries," Pandya said.

Pandya said Gujarat has already come out of the long shadow of the year-long communal violence and now it is time to march ahead.

Piruz Khambatta, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Gujarat council, said, "The Vibrant Gujarat summit and investors' meets show that this government is trying to send a positive signal to the investors. We are finding that the Modi government is trying to work along with various trade and commerce organisations like CII. Though it is too early to comment whether memorandums of understanding for projects worth Rs 66,000 crore signed during the summit will be fully implemented, we believe that the state will get big investments in the near future."

Khambatta said the government was successful in reducing red-tapism. "It is a major exercise to get the work done properly and timely by lakhs of government employees but in the last one year, we have introduced the concept, 'Karmayogi', through which the government has been trying to motivate the employees to work harder and faster. We are in process of decentralising the work system in the government departments so that people in small towns do not need to come to Gandhinagar, for tracking their files," Modi said on Sunday.

During the last one year, the Modi government announced the industrial policy, mining policy, agriculture policy and tourism policy.

The government is now working on a comprehensive Act for the natural gas and information technology sectors, he said.

"The government must be given credit for coming out with new policies which are investor-friendly. But we need to wait for sometime to see whether these policies are going to be properly implemented. The CNG Act should be announced at the earliest as the private companies are yet to get a thorough knowledge about what is going to be this government's policy in the gas sector. The state needs to reconsider its high taxes in this sector as Modi is claiming that Gujarat will be the Petro Capital of India in the near future," said a senior official of a private oil and gas company.