Speaking at a roundtable on “India and the US: Sharing Best Practices on Competitiveness & Ease-of-Doing Business” in Dehradun, Chief Secretary S Ramaswamy opined that in addition to focusing on new businesses, the State Government’s single window Ease-of-Doing Business cell would now be expanded to include redressal of issues that existing businesses are facing. The roundtable was supported by the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy, New Delhi, CUTS International, Jaipur and Industries Association of Uttarakhand, with Government officials and Uttarakhand Industry leaders.
Sharing the American best practices on promoting competitiveness, economist Shanthi Nataraj from RAND Corporation recommended that policies that promote good business conditions, coupled with financial incentives that promote competition and entrepreneurship are most likely to attract businesses and promote growth. Provision of critical public goods and services, flexibility in labour markets, and private sector partnerships are key to the growth of MSMEs.
Principal Secretary of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Manisha Panwar highlighted the State Government initiatives in setting up the EoDB cell to facilitate industrial promotion and growth.
President, Industries Association of Uttarakhand Pankaj Gupta highlighted the present Ease of Doing Business initiatives that have been undertaken by the State Government and asked for Setting up a Innovation, Design & Product Development Centre having Research & Development facilities to support the MSME sector. He also laid stress on State Specific Export Policy for Uttarakhand to promote Exports from the State of Uttarakhand which has huge export potential. The other important suggestion to which the Chief Secretary agreed was having regular interaction every quarterly so that Challenges & problems being faced by Industries could be discussed and a forward be suggested.
Rahul Singh, Policy Analyst of CUTS mentioned that the state should have its own Export Policy/Strategy and a mechanism to share its good practices with other North Indian states and learn from non-successes.
There is a considerable similarity in the federal structures between the United States (US) and India where the different states have necessary powers to influence the business climate. learnings from the US could be beneficial to the Indian stakeholders as it would provide them a direction as well as an approach for adopting the necessary reforms.
The roundtable was attended by close to 25 senior state government policy makers and top industry representatives. At the end of the session Chief Secretary, Uttarakhand presented the Ganga Jali and the Rudraksh Mala to the visiting delegation.