The State Government on Friday began a mammoth exercise of restoring the investor-friendly image of the State across the country and outside by holding the first meeting of the Jharkhand Investment Promotion Board (JIPB) in India's financial capital, Mumbai.
Chief Minister Raghubar Das, who is also the chairman of the Board, convened the meeting with industry leaders and experts brainstorming on issues pertaining to investment in the State and making it perform even better in terms of ease of doing business.
The Board is stipulated to comprise at least ten industry representatives nominated by the Government - with due focus on priority sectors such as food processing, energy, automobile, IT-ITeS, tourism, infrastructure development, healthcare and education.
"While we are very happy and enthusiastic about our accomplishment in instituting DIPP's Business Reforms desirables, we call upon industry representatives to reflect on these systems in a frank and forthright manner, so that we can completely iron out discrepancies and make them more responsive, robust and long term. We aim to ace the systems compliance agenda and will also strive to bring the most promising investment proposals to Jharkhand. Investors are our partners in progress and this partnership, I believe, will be meaningful when it shapes up appropriately at the conception stage," Das said in his inaugural remarks.
Industry leaders, including Sajjan Jindal, JSW Steel CMD , MD of Usha Martin ltd Rajeev Jhawar, SAIl Chairman PK Singh, Tata Steel MD T V Narendran, CEO Vedanta Resources, Tom Albanese, Executive Vice President of larsen and Toubro ltd,
Derek Shah, President of laghu Udyog Bharti India, Om Parkash Mittal, Director of XlRI, Jamshedpur Father E Abraham and Director, Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi, Anindya Sen attended the meeting. They lauded the efforts of the Government for being in good coordination with the Centre and encouraging the flagship schemes very effectively.
During the meeting with key industrialists, Chief Secretary Raj Bala Verma and Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, Amit Khare took the participants through the recent measures and the agenda for the coming six months. One by one, the concerns articulated by participants were either responded to or noted down for action.
The maiden 'Handbook for Shelf on Projects in the State of Jharkhand' - a comprehensive document containing details of the key investible projects in the State - was released during the meeting. The handbook is meant to serve as a guiding document for prospective investors to comprehend the scope of opportunities in Jharkhand. It will assist investors in pursuing expansion plans by identifying various options for investments in Jharkhand and choosing appropriate ones based upon their areas of interest, expertise, scale, budget and vision.
"The Handbook will work as a foundation for the long-term development of Jharkhand and offers an important tool to support the State in its effort to attract investments," said the CS.
The JIPB will hereafter meet twice a year. The JIPB augurs well for the campaign since it promises to greatly enhance the State's brand value by distinguishing the consultation process as absolutely direct compared to the survey-based convention.