Punjab Industrial and Business Development Policy

With a slew of policies in the anvil, Punjab stands at the cusp of a significant transformation that could accelerate the economic and social development of the State. These policies aim to overcome the challenges and constraints that the State faces in sectors like infrastructure, agriculture, real estate, industry and trade, education and works forward to strengthen Punjab in such areas. To put the State back on its high trajectory of prosperity and growth, the Punjab Industrial and Business Development Policy 2017 has been formulated. This article talks about this policy, its aspects and its recent amendment in 2018.

The Policy

The Punjab Industrial and Business Development Policy 2017 ushers bold reforms, restructures institutions, as well as, offers a holistic framework for sustaining the industrial growth of Punjab. This policy is built around eight core strategic pillars of Infrastructure, MSME, Power, Ease of Doing Business, Skills, Startup & Entrepreneurship, Fiscal and Non-Fiscal Incentives and Stakeholder Engagement supported by Sector Specific Strategies. It has been designed to boost the development of the MSME sector. The policy also has the objective to promote the growth of the service industries and not just the traditional manufacturing industries.

In the true spirit of co-operative federalism, this development policy envisages substantial alignment and synergy with respective to sectoral policies of the Central Government and focuses on the optimum utilisation of the same and further building on it. The strategy aims to set up a Policy Implementation Unit to ensure that necessary support is given for the implementation of various essentials of this Policy.

Vision

The following is the vision of the Punjab Industrial and Business Development Policy 2017.

To develop the State as one of the most economically developed states in the Country and make it the best State for doing business.

Mission

The following are the final objectives of the Punjab Industrial and Business Development Policy 2017.

To accelerate the industrial growth and job creation rate.
To provide quality and affordable power supply to the Industry.
To develop world-class infrastructure for the Industry.
To accelerate the growth of MSMEs.
To facilitate the availability of a skilled workforce to the Industry.
To focus on Start-ups and Entrepreneurship.
To improve the EoDB: Ease of Doing Business in Punjab.
To bring synergy between the state programs and central schemes.
To rebuild institutional capacity as well as enhance institutional linkages.

Goals

The following are the goals of the Punjab Industrial and Business Development Policy 2017.

To accelerate the industrial growth and job creation rate.
- To attract INR 5 Lakh Crores of investment in the next five years.
- To increase the Share of the secondary sector in terms of GSDP to 30% and the tertiary sector by 62%.
- To facilitate job creation where a minimum of one job per household is achieved and fulfils the Ghar Ghar Rozgaar Mission of Punjab.
To develop world-class infrastructure for the Industry.
- To develop four industrial parks and ten industrial estates over the next five years.
- To attract a minimum of one anchor unit in different manufacturing and service industry sectors.
To provide affordable and quality power to the Industry.
- To offer power at affordable and fixed tariffs for a period of 5 years to the industry.
- To upgrade the power supply infrastructure in every industrial area to provide quality and uninterrupted power.
To accelerate the growth of MSMEs.
- To carry an in-depth study on a minimum of 10 clusters every year for specific interventions in order to increase their competitiveness.
- To upgrade and set up a common facility centre in 10 clusters annually.
- To upgrade and set up ten technology centres within the State
To focus on Startups and Entrepreneurship.
- To facilitate a minimum of 1000 startups over the next five years.
- To set up at the least ten incubation centres or accelerators in Punjab, mainly focusing on Digital manufacturing, Information Technology, Lifesciences (Biotechnology), Agro & Food Processing.
- To build strong linkages between all significant institutions.
- To facilitate 50 Entrepreneurship Development Centres in colleges and universities throughout the State.
To facilitate the availability of a skilled workforce to the Industry.
- To set up at least one Skill University in Punjab.
- To set up at least one Skill Centre for each identified industrial cluster.
- To set up advanced skilling on hi-tech manufacturing, design and IT skills for five identified sectors.
To improve the EoDB: Ease of Doing Business in Punjab.
- To be among the top 5 States in the Country concerning ease of doing business in 3 years and to secure the top position in 5 years.
- To strengthen the Invest Punjab initiative by setting up of Business First portal with a single unified interface to the Industry and the Businesses for all the regulatory and fiscal services throughout their lifecycle
- To re-engineer the processes of the seven core departments based on priority namely Industry, Power, Labour, Pollution Control, Housing & Urban Development, Local Department and Taxation by making them extremely simple, industry-friendly and completely digital.
To build the institutional capacity and to enhance institutional linkages.
- To restructure the existing entities and empower them through the statutory powers in order to translate the vision and mission of the Policy into a reality.
- To set up a Policy Implementation Unit to support the implementation of various aspects of the policy and monitor the progress.
- To set up an effective mechanism for talent acquisition for specific projects, organisations and other initiatives.
- To set up an effective mechanism for partnering with various national and international agencies and develop an effective PPP model for infrastructure, technology support, skills and other requirements of the Industry.
To bring synergy between the state programs and central schemes.
- To strengthen liaison office at Delhi with a strong team to liaison across the Central Ministries and Agencies to ensure that State draws benefits from all the relevant Central Schemes.
- To ensure optimum utilisation of central schemes by respective departments and agencies of the State with support from the Policy Implementation Unit.

Appicability

The policy would be applicable for a period five years from the date of issuing the notification and could be extended further if the State wishes to do so. The policy may be amended during the course of implementation. However, all such amendments and modifications should be applied prospectively and should not curtail any of the benefits or concessions already granted under the same policy. The reference to State in this Policy is a reference to the State Government of Punjab and its relevant departments and agencies as may be specified in the schemes for the implementation of the Policy.

MSME Development

The State recognises that the different stages of MSMEs have different needs. The growth of MSME can be broadly classified into five stages: Ideating a Business, Starting a Business, Growing a Business, Reviving a Business and Exiting a Business. This Policy would address the various needs that emerge in these stages. The Policy is not merely subsidisation of factors of production but also, growth and performance oriented. The policy would strengthen the state institutions to support a smart MSME Ecosystem driven by efficiency and innovation. Punjab has a strong base of more than 1.6 Lakh MSME units truly reflecting the enterprising spirit of the State. In order to address a myriad of challenges being faced by the MSMEs in the State and to make it a highly vibrant and dynamic sector, the State would set up ‘MSME Punjab’, as part of the Punjab Industrial and Business Development Authority to focus on the development of MSMEs.

Innovation, Startups and Entrepreneurship

The State is known for the enterprising spirit of its people, which brought about the Green Revolution and also made Punjab a hub of micro, small and medium enterprises. The State now looks forward to transitioning to knowledge and technology-driven enterprises. It aims to develop a brand new culture of innovation. The State recognises that innovation and entrepreneurship are crucial for the future growth of the State’s economy and supports cluster-specific bottom-up approach to build and strengthen the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in the State. The State would follow an entrepreneur-centric approach to foster connections and learning. The State would facilitate networking between entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship support organisations by bringing entrepreneurs together in an environment that catalyses learning.