The national manufacturing policy that proposes to create mega industrial zones with world-class facilities and tax sops for units is likely to be implemented by the end of the month, commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma has said.

"The note will go to the Cabinet within a week. I do not foresee any delay. Hopefully within this month it will become a reality," Sharma told reporters on Friday.

The policy aims to create 100 million additional jobs and take the share of manufacturing to 25% of the country's GDP by 2020 from the current 16%.

The labour and environment ministries had opposed the relaxation in laws sought by the department of industrial policy and promotion for units in the national manufacturing investment zones or NMIZs, but the matter was resolved after it was agreed that the existing national laws would be applicable to all.

"We propose to establish 4-5 NMIZs as greenfield integrated industrial townships with world-class infrastructure, financed by the central government in partnership with respective state governments, with a competitive regulatory environment for attractive investments," he said.

Unlike SEZs that have proliferated throughout the country, only a handful of NMIZs have been planned and this could even subsume SEZs.

On the ambitious $90-billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), Sharma said that seven new investment regions would be set up across the six states under the project.

"We have completed the perspective planning of the entire DMIC region and I have moved the Cabinet for seeking support of 18,500 crore for establishment of seven new investment regions across the six states," he said.

Source: India Brand Equity Foundation
Date: September 05, 2011