Despite having several reforms campaigns for the ease of doing business in Rajasthan that has emerged as the seventh largest economy in the country, the desert state still has some rooms for growth and development. In an exclusive interview with The Pioneer, Chief Secretary of Rajasthan Government CS Rajan talks about a gamut of issues relating to the economy, infrastructure, water crisis, redevelopment and other civic concerns of the state.
In terms of investment, do you think Rajasthan is far ahead of other statesIJ
Now Rajasthan has emerged as the seventh largest economy in the country. The rate of growth is the highest at a rate of 8 per cent annually. I think, this rate of growth is higher than all the leading states of the country-Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, UP etc. As far as investment scenario is concerned, the investors' community from India and different parts of the globe has taken initiative in Rajasthan to park their funds in the state with a great zeal. In 'Resurgent Rajasthan Partner Summit 2015', many countries such as Singapore, Japan, Italy and South Australia have partnered with us at very short notice and all of them want to see different business opportunities that Rajasthan is offering to. The changes in policy and legal framework as well as the ease of doing business are firing the imaginations of investors in which we will create employment and generating revenue for the state.
How do you see the relationship with Singapore on Rajasthan's developmentIJ
I think a few partnerships have developed interaction with Rajasthan and Singapore. We had two bilateral visits to Singapore - one team followed by me and K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs of Singapore in February this year and the other team led by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in August last year. Besides, there were several team exchanges between the two counties where some State Government officials were sent to Singapore for training in water management and skilling. After such visits, a deal was also signed by Singapore Government to set up hospitality skilling centre at Udaipur and Singapore firms are also now engaged in supplying membrane technology for the treatment of waste water in Barmer district of the state as well.
How important for you to push Rajasthan's growth and development as far as Singapore technology support is concernedIJ
The partnership with Singapore, I think, has been redeeming features for our relationship. It is short relationship which we partner with them just a year ago. They have forged a number of projects which, of course, speaks volume for the growth and development of the state.
What about the water situation in the state, mostly the crisis like scarcity, impurity and other related issues for the use of industries and citizens of the stateIJ
The scarcity of water is classified into two parts - one is in urban parts and the other is of poor quality and potable drinking water in rural areas. For water crisis in urban areas, apart from surface drinking water bases schemes are brought to urban areas where we try to meet industrial needs of the consumers by treatment of waste water and the Singaporean firms are also playing the key role in this project. In the rural areas, we have large areas in the state which are chloride-affected and facing the problems of serenity. So there is proper treatment required to make it pure drinking water. This treatment can be done in two levels - centralised treatment and decentralised treatment. In decentralised mode, a large number of reverse osmosis units have to be set up. One major project that has been taken is in Barmer district where 800 habitations are to be covered under this decentralised mode. Also, we have a partnership with Cairn Energy which is providing the funds around Rs 100 crore for a period of three years and they in turn are bidding for installation and maintenance. And many of the firms who are participating in these bids are using hi-flux developed membrane technologies.
What about Singapore-based 'Garden by the Bay' which is developing a couple of park projects in Jaipur. What is the status of these projects so farIJ
There are two parks in Jaipur where it has been planned for redevelopment, but they are yet to be started. The 'Garden by the Bay' project is with Singapore Government in which Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) has also been engaging with them too. A team of architects has already visited the sites of those parks here and they developed first set of drawings initially. After the ground work, they shared it with the Chief Minister and JDA team as well. I think, the drawings would be finalised very soon and the work of developing the gardens here would be started in few months.
How did such idea come to youIJ
In fact, the Chief Minister wanted the similar gardens after visiting the Garden by the Bay in Singapore. So she wanted all nallahs and rivulets nearby the existing garden in Jaipur to be transformed and developed into two beautiful gardens which will serve the needs of the citizens of the city. Moreover, it has to be customised with local climate with the use of plants, shrubs, trees etc which should respect local sentiments and its climate. Also, we have done the landscaping on the projects which have been finalised in Singapore, but as far as the development of plants are concerned, it has to be done locally.