Centre launches National GIS-enabled land bank system for 6 states to boost investments | Economy News

New Delhi: Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday (August 27) held a virtual meeting with the industry ministers of states, UT administrators and senior officers of the central and state governments, and discussed the issues of pushing industrial manufacturing in the country, attracting investments, pushing the approach of ‘One District One Product’ (ODOP), and promote a National Movement Towards ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’. 

Piyush Goyal e-launched the National GIS-enabled Land Bank system (https://iis.ncog.gov.in/parks) for 6 states. The system is being developed by the integration of the Industrial Information System (IIS) with state GIS systems. 

Launching the system, Goyal expressed the confidence that other states/UTs will be onboarded by December 2020, stating that this is a prototype only and will be developed further with inputs from states, to make it an effective, transparent mechanism of land identification and procurement.

Goyal called upon the states to collectively work in the spirit of ‘Team India’ to enhance industrial activity in the country, attract investment and provide a better life to 1.3 billion people of India, and better prospects for the coming generations. 

He said that Aatamnirbhar Bharat, a self-reliant country has to increase engagement with the world, from the position of confidence and strength. India has to achieve the target of 5 trillion dollar economy in five years. For this, manufacturing has to play an important role, which can provide employment and value addition, he added.

Goyal asked the states to adopt the Public Procurement Policy-Make in India Order issued by the Centre, adding that it is an effective tool to achieve Aatamnirbhar Bharat and boost local manufacturing. Under this, No Global Tender Enquiry is permitted for procurements less than Rs 200 crores. Bidders with beneficial ownership /belonging to countries sharing a land border with India will be able to participate in government procurements only after a mandatory registration, based on clearances given by MEA, MHA, and procuring ministries. Countries, where Indian companies face restrictive trade, practices, the invocation of the reciprocity clause may be invoked. 

The minister asked the states to appoint a senior officer who can facilitate its quick adoption, adding that the order promotes Aatamnirbhar Bharat and would open a large number of employment opportunities, and hence there is no reason for any objection to this order by any state. State Governments of Manipur, Nagaland and Sikkim have adopted the Order so far.

The Minister also stressed on developing a single-window system, which could be One-stop digital platform to obtain all requisite central and state clearances/approvals, required to start business operations in India. 

“This could eliminate the need for investors to visit multiple platforms/offices to gather information and obtain clearances from different stakeholders. It could leverage capabilities of existing systems and provide time-bound approvals and real-time status update to investors,” he said, adding that there could be a single application form that could entail Single-time upload of all relevant information & documents. 

He said that even the local bodies should also be involved in this system, and a notion of Deemed approval can be adopted to make the system effective. Stating that the Window could be the showpiece of our cooperative, collaborative federalism, he called upon all the states to join hands with the DPIIT.

On the ‘One District One Product’ (ODOP) approach, Goyal said that this could help in making India a Manufacturing Powerhouse. He said that every district has some specialty, strengths or uniqueness, and ODOP could be a transformational step forward realizing the true potential of a district, fuel economic growth, and generate employment and rural entrepreneurship. 

The approach seeks to add existing industrial capacity beyond the urban areas and create productive manufacturing from a rural/semi-urban area, said Goyal, adding that the future manufacturing clusters may also have low-value addition manufacturing clusters in rural India. 

Calling for scaling it up as a national movement, he assured the Centre’s help in packaging, branding, and global marketing of such products. The Minister said that states should identify products with market potential for import substitution and export accentuation, and establish forward and backward market linkage channels. 

On the issue of districts as Export Hubs, he said that States/UTs have been requested to identify products unique to each district, and requested them to integrate with their district-level export strategies which feed into the State level export strategies.

On the expectations from state governments for implementation of Agri Export Policy, Goyal said that only 14 states have finalised Action Plans, and he called upon others to finalize their expeditiously. The states were requested to designate Nodal Agencies and Nodal Officers for the purpose, and also set up State Level Monitoring Committees.

Referring to the institutional mechanisms to fast-track investments in the country, Goyal said that Empowered Group of Secretaries (E-GoS) and Project Development Cells (PDCs) in various Ministries have been set up at the Centre. He asked the states to evolve their own mechanism on similar lines.

On the issue of regulatory burden at the state-level, Goyal said that Regulatory compliance burden has an adverse effect on time and cost of business. It also leads to an increase in corruption and promotes rent-seeking behavior. 

Calling upon the Complete Review of Acts/Rules for identifying all Licenses, Certificates, Permissions; Inspections; Return filings; Registers and Records and minimize regulatory compliance, he said that simplification of procedures will help in attracting investments from abroad and also lead to Ease of doing business for the domestic investors.

Notably, the IIS portal is a GIS-enabled database of industrial areas/clusters across the states. More than 3,300 industrial parks across 31 States/UTs covering about 475,000 hectares land have been mapped on the System. The information available includes forest, drainage; raw material heat maps (agricultural, horticulture, mineral layers); multiple layers of connectivity, and National GIS-enabled Land. 

The IIS adopts a committed approach towards resource optimization, industrial up-gradation, and sustainability. The initiative is being supported by Invest India, National Center of Geo-Informatics (NCoG), National e-Governance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics (BISAG).