'Tata Sons will explore investment opportunities in Punjab'

Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran today promised Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to visit Punjab soon to explore possibilities of setting up a major venture.

Singh met Chandrasekaran on the first day of his three-day visit to the country's financial capital to woo investors, as part of 'Invest Punjab' initiative, and urged him to invest in the state.

Singh also met ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar who agreed to consider the possibility of shifting the bank's back-end operations to Mohali in the next stage of expansion.

Singh, who is leading a delegation, promised to streamline the systems and processes to make the state more investor- and industry-friendly, while reiterating his commitment to provide power to industry at Rs 5 per unit.
 

Besides one-on-one meetings with Chandrasekaran and Kochhar, the chief minister also held separate meetings with Goldman Sachs Chairman Sonjoy Chatterjee and Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej.

During his meeting with Chandrasekaran, he said that Punjab was the only power surplus state in the country and at Rs 5 per unit, it would be the second state after Himachal Pradesh to provide cheap power.

During his talk with Kochhar, he suggested that ICICI Bank move its back-end operations to Mohali, as HDFC Bank and Infosys were already doing. The ICICI Bank chief said they would consider this as and when they decide to expand, according to a press release of the state government.

They also worked out plans for development of the chief minister's ancestral village Mehraj, as a model digital village and support to small dairy farmers, besides training and skill development of farmers and unemployed youth were other issues.

Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, who is a part of the delegation, urged ICICI Bank to consider developing 200 model dairy farms in the state exclusively for breeding.

Adi Godrej, during his discussion with the chief minister said his company was constantly looking at expanding further in Punjab with more ventures in the future.

Godrej, who is also chairman of the Indian School of Business, expressed concern about imposition of GST on private educational institutions and urged the chief minister to pursue the central government for exemption.