Wealth prescription

FOR decades Baddi was just another sleepy Himachal town, 50 km from Chandigarh. Now the town is set to become one of Asia8217;s biggest pha...

FOR decades Baddi was just another sleepy Himachal town, 50 km from Chandigarh. Now the town is set to become one of Asia8217;s biggest pharmaceutical hub. Nearly 200 pharma giants have set up manufacturing units; over a hundred packaging units have proposed investment; the local textile industry has been manufacturing over 5 lakh spindles; the number of total units setting up operations at Baddi has exceeded the 1,200 figure, and the state government is still counting.

Himachal is emerging as a favourite industrial address because of the incentives to industry and policies of the state government, says Lokender Singh Chauhan, general manager, Districts Industries Centre, Solan.

8216;8216;We have Wipro Infotech, HLL, Nicolas Piramal, M038;B Footwear, Godrej, Cadbury8217;s, Pepsi Foods among the MNCs. Pharma giants like Dr Reddy8217;s Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Cipla, Cadila, Alembic are already here,8217;8217; Chauhan adds.

After the Himachal Government offered incentives to set up industry in the state, fortunes in the Baddi-Barotiwala belt changed rapidly. The town has witnessed a population growth of about 1.5 lakh, exceeding even the state capital8217;s population.

Within a year of the government announcing special industrial packages, at least 600 new units have registered, initially attracting an investment of Rs 2,270.24 crore. The number of units has reached 1,200. Exports have gone up as well, touching Rs 600 crore.

Explaining the Baddi rush, Tilak Raj, member secretary, Single Window Clearance Agency, Department of Industry, says that in addition to the incentives announced, Himachal Pradesh offers better facilities to industrialists: 100 per cent exemption from Central Excise duty for a period of 10 years; 100 per cent Income Tax exemption for the initial five years; 30 per cent I-T exemption for companies, and 25 per cent exemption for others for the next five years.

The government has announced incentives to the industries which intend to expand. The tourism industry has also come under its ambit.

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Those who have already entered Baddi are upbeat. J.N.Gupta, partner, Sar Biotech, says: 8216;8216;Baddi gives us the logistic advantage of covering Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Uttar Pradesh. The 8216;simplification of procedures8217; no red tape has helped attract industrialists. Gupta says the government8217;s policies indicate that the administration means business.