Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday got an assurance from the Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran to visit the State soon to explore the possibility of setting up a major venture, even as the ICICI Bank limited CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar agreed to consider the possibility of shifting bank’s backend operations to Mohali in the next stage of their expansion.
Capt Amarinder, on the first day of his three-day Mumbai trip to woo investors as part of the State Government’s ‘Invest Punjab’ initiative, promised to streamline the systems and processes to make the State more investor and industry friendly, while reiterating his commitment to provide power to the industry at Rs 5 per unit.
Besides one-to-one meetings with Chandrasekaran and Kochchar, the Chief Minister also held separate meetings with Goldman Sachs chairman Sonjoy Chatterjee and Godrej Group chairman Adi Godrej.
Capt Amarinder, during his meeting with Chandrasekaran, pointed out that Punjab was the only power surplus State in the country with abundance of cheap power for industrial units coupled with hard working and dedicated human resource in terms of young and talented youth.
With power at Rs 5 per unit, Punjab would be the second State after Himachal Pradesh to offer power to the industry at such low tariff, he added.
During detailed talks with Kochchar, Capt Amarinder suggested that ICICI Bank move its backend 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.
The development of the Chief Minister’s ancestral village, Mehraj, as a model digital village, support to small dairy farmers, besides training and skill development of farmers and unemployed youth were other issues on which the two sides agreed to work closely, said Media Adviser to CM Raveen Thukral , who is also accompanying Capt Amarinder.
On the issue of farmers’ training, the Chief Minister stressed the importance of reducing reliance on paddy and wheat by shifting to other products, such as dairy, fruits and vegetables, for which the farmers needed to be trained.
He also suggested opening of youth skill development centres, on the lines of the one being run in Mohali by ICICI Bank, in all districts of the State. Kochchar promised to consider reskilling and financing to partner the State Government in the establishment of such centres for youth and farmers, with experts called in from various fields to take the process forward.
The State Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, who is part of the Chief Minister’s delegation, urged ICICI Bank to consider developing 200 model dairy farms in the State exclusively for breeding purposes.
The Chief Minister agreed to let the Bank develop Mehraj as a digital village as part of the ‘ICICI Digital Villages’ initiative, through which the bank plans to transform 100 villages across the country into digital villages in 100 days.
The Chief Minister further spoke about his Government’s proposed ‘Guardians of Governance’ scheme to ensure that the funds meant for welfare reached the people at the grassroots.
Kochchar said the bank would soon make a presentation to the Chief Minister in Chandigarh on the National Agriculture Market (NAM) online trading portal for farm produce launched last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The bank is seeking to extend the e-initiative to Punjab. In his meeting with Goldman Sachs chairman, Capt Amarinder discussed investment options for the State, which the former agreed to explore.
The evening concluded with a dinner meeting with KPMG India chairman and CEO Arun K Kumar, during which Capt Amarinder urged KPMG to come up with out-of-the-box ideas for generation of revenue in the State.