CM woos IT companies

The Chief Minister quoted the latest CMIE survey which showed that there are Rs 85,000 crore worth project under implementation in the state, which is nearly 50 per cent higher than the next best Tamil Nadu. About 118 US companies have evinced interest in investing about $4.6 bn in India out of which 57 per cent will flow into Maharashtra.

The state’s scientific and technical institutions contribute 1,60,000 trained man-power every year and it also leads in 12 out of 24 sectors in value of output. The government will now aim at international standards in the reform of policy and procedures, and in quality of infrastructure and services. Deshmukh said that the state government is working on to reduce the paper work under various labour laws, and to rationalise the visits by inspectors.

Meanwhile, pursuing the second generation reforms with the government, Ficci has planned to stress on the use of information technology and thus reduce both paper-work and transaction cost involved in the government departments.

Speaking on the reforms, FICCI president GP Goenka said "there is an enormous delay in getting approval for projects from government departments even after producing necessary details… and there is no accountability for the delay caused. This has resulted in pushing up transaction and project costs."

FICCI vice-president Chirayur Amin has drawn the government attention to the unmindful dumping of goods especially textile and chemicals by China. "China has not signed WTO. Every thing including power, raw materials etc are all subsidised and availability of cheap labour has also added up to their advantage. The manufacturing cost of products are very less and since they have very less buying capacity they dump products on India,” he said.