The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has urged Uttarakhand Government to urgently set up a special investment monitoring task force to ensure timely and effective implementation of live investment projects worth over Rs two lakh crore attracted by the State from global and domestic private and public sources in the financial year 2017 to create around 30,000 direct jobs in the next five years.
Addressing the media here in Dehradun on Saturday, the ASSOCHAM secretary general DS Rawat said, “Speeding up implementation of projects through target setting must be the mandate and chief minister should immediately constitute committee of senior ministers and bureaucrats to oversee pace of projects’ implementation and address environmental, land acquisition and other related issues proactively to balance interests of all stakeholders.”
Releasing the findings of the ASSOCHAM study ‘Uttarakhand: Economic Growth and Investment Performance Analysis’, he said that the State should accord more importance to implementing investment intentions as even if about half of these get implemented it would help create thousands of direct and indirect jobs across the state during the course of next five years.
“The Uttarakhand Government must focus on upskilling its people thereby making them more employable as that would help deal with challenges of growing migration of people to greener pastures in search of jobs and will also help in attracting investors by portraying abundant skilled workforce availability,” he said. Rawat further stated that the state’s future success also lies in unlocking potential of abundant natural resources though it will also have to deal with factors like land scarcity, rising human-wildlife conflict, physical connectivity and others.
He said that live investments attracted by Uttarakhand grew at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.5 per cent between financial years 2012 and 2017 which is almost three times of the national average CAGR of 4.8 per cent clocked during this period, according to the study conducted by ASSOCHAM Economic Research Bureau (AERB). Non-financial services account for over half of the total live investments attracted by Uttarakhand in financial year 2017 with electricity sector acquiring over 46 per cent share in this regard, it noted.
He informed that though agriculture and allied activities are the mainstay of over 51 per cent of state’s total workforce as per the 2011 census, the sector’s contribution to state’s economy recorded a decline of about three per cent from 12.3 per cent in 2012 to 8.9 per cent in 2017.
There is also not much difference in terms of agriculture sector’s growth pattern in past five years as it remained at about two per cent. Rawat recalled that the chamber has often suggested that
the government authorities should float a state-specific separate mountain farming policy. “low level of land holdings and poor crop productivity pose the grave twin challenges being faced by agriculture sector in Uttarakhand. So, priority must be given to further developing irrigation infrastructure besides, production of local and traditional mountain crops must be promoted and farmers must also be given adequate cover in terms of welfare schemes,” he said.
Apart from this, adequate technical and financial support for water conservation should also be extended to farmers and steps should be taken to encourage improved agronomic practices for higher farm productivity, better soil treatment, increased water holding capacity, judicious use of chemicals and enhanced soil carbon storage.
Promotion of food processing industries, bolstering sector-specific infrastructure like warehouses, cold storages and others to avoid spoilage of perishable products will further strengthen the industrial scenario of Uttarakhand, suggested the ASSOCHAM paper. The contribution of services sector to Uttarakhand’s economy has improved significantly from 33.9 per cent in 2012 to 36.5 per cent in 2017. Besides, it has also grown at a CAGR of 8.6 per cent between 2012 and 2017 which is equivalent to the national average CAGR in this regard.
Terming the state’s performance in services sector as ‘encouraging,’ the ASSOCHAM study has suggested the policymakers to aim for expanding the sector be it tourism or information technology-- both hold massive potential to generate additional economic activity and employment opportunities in Uttarakhand.