North Indian states offer Ease of Doing Business, Ideal Environment
New Delhi. As India embarks upon ‘Act East Policy’ cultivating economic and strategic relations with Asia Pacific region countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Republic of Korea (ROK), Australia, Singapore and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), many of these countries have started looking for business opportunities in India.
According to experts, the foreign investors looking forward to invest in India, and set up their shops here should seriously consider options from the north-Indian states also especially the ones located along the National Highway (NH) 48, the crucial stretch of the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) besides searching for conducive locations in Southern part of India.
The major metros, business hubs, and industrial townships on NH-48, also called Delhi-Jaipur Expressway are Delhi and National Capital Regions (NCR) towns like Gurugram (the erstwhile Gurgaon), Jaipur besides industrial model townships (IMTs) like Manesar, Bawal, Shahjahanpur (Alwar), Behror and Kotputli.
Along with the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, NH-48 is also a vital component of the US$100 billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).
“Some of the north-Indian states like Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and other places are ideal locations in terms of Ease of Doing Business. These locations are very close to the customer base. Besides being peaceful in terms of industrial relations, these locations already have large production installations like Maruti Suzuki and Honda Motorcycles in Gurgaon. The NCR town Noida also has world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturing facility as well as white goods giant LG,” said Iqbal Singh Anand, Chairman, ALP Group which has come up with ALP Polymer Park in Shahjahanpur in Rajasthan.
According to Singh, a veteran with over 35 years of industry experience in the field of automotive sealing products, the north India states like Haryana also offered ‘ease of living’ comfort.
“A majority of expats community especially from Japan, Korea, and China lives in the plush condominiums on golf course road and other parts of Gurugram that offers world-class residential comfort. Industrial locations in Rajasthan are very close by. Apart from this, the labor is much docile and cheaply available as compared to southern states as the minimum wage there is Rs. 25,000per month whereas it’s around Rs. 8,000 per month. Likewise, electricity supply situation on northern states is not only better but economical as well,” said Singh adding that the situation in south Indian states has eroded now as a heavy concentration of industries has spoilt the atmosphere there. Land prices there too high in the south Indian states.
The USD 120 million ALP group constituting 10 companies spread across the globe has invited companies especially from small and medium enterprises (SME) sector to set up their shops in its ALP Polymer Park offering plug & run facilities without being worried about the infrastructure and government approvals.
“We aim to bring applied engineering or methodology for processing in injection or blow molding or vacuum foaming in the park. For this, we approached German companies for Polymer Engineering development under the inter-exchange program and also for setting up the R&D Centre here. We intend to give training to their engineering graduates under the exchange program as we in India lack the concept of backward engineering and start from the machine building stage. It suited them as well it was expensive in Germany but not in India. It would ensure the cross flow of technology,” said Singh.
ALP Polymer Park also has plans to invite the world’s best processing companies to set up their shops here where one can go for machines on display.
The power supply in Rajasthan is adequate and economical as well.
“We would also give the companies 24 by 7 uninterrupted power supply as we are connected to the national grid. We have set up our own power plant, and have solar power plant as well. You just name the facilities, we have it be it civil contractor and architecture, centralised security and residential accommodation for executives and engineers as well as Korean, Japanese and Chinese language translators. We also have plans to set up golf course near the park as the land parcels are abundance here,” Singh summed up.
The companies, especially from Korea and Japan, can look forward to recreation facilities like koreoke bars and also grocery shops for foods in time to come besides mobile nursing facilities and auditorium for tech conferences.
