Setting up of a common economic zone by abolishing the multiple tax structure was needed for industrial development of northern states, said Rakesh Bharti Mittal, chairman of the northern chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry and vice-chairman and managing director of Bharti Teletech Ltd.
He said the northern states were lagging behind the south and the west in terms of development of industry. The CII is studying the comparative advantage of these states since they had the disadvantage of being in landlocked.
Mittal said as the chairman of the CII (north region), his focus would be on the development of the service sector, especially IT- enabled services and business process outsourcing, as the region had quality human capital.
The chamber would try to persuade the state governments in the region to develop infrastructure to attract big corporates, Mittal said.
Expressing concern over small and medium enterprises of Ludhiana and Mohali in Punjab, which had been affected by the rise in steel prices, he said the chamber had held discussions with the Indian Steel Alliance, organisation of steel producers.
The chamber proposed a five-point agenda to meet the domestic demand of hot rolled coil and the steel producers agreed to meet the aggregate demand of small and medium enterprises, Mittal said.
Meanwhile, the Rajasthan state council of the Confederation of Indian Industries has decided to set up a working group on industry-institute interaction.
The group will help in bringing industry closer to academia and vice-versa and help in re-designing the curricula, particularly for technical courses, to make them more relevant to the user.
It will also liaison with the state government and other regional organisations to promote co-operation between industry and institutions.
The group will discuss the proposed workshop on the issue in Jaipur with the All-India Council for Technical Education.
The group will be chaired by Ajay K Gupta, managing director, Kamtech Associates Pvt Ltd. Members of the group include BG Mundhra, president of NEI Ltd, VD Narang, director of SISI, PP Ramakrishnan, general manager of Sidbi and Vishwanath Sinha, director of LNM Institute of Information Technology.
