Haryana's draft industrial policy aims to attract Rs 1 lakh crore investment, generate 5 lakh jobs

Haryana's draft industrial policy aims to attract Rs 1 lakh crore investment, generate 5 lakh jobs and establish the state as a favoured investment destination.

According to the draft 'Haryana Enterprises and Employment Policy, 2020', the state is planning to establish Haryana as a competitive and favoured investment destination, achieve regional development, export diversification and provide livelihood opportunities to its people through resilient economic development.

"The policy objective is to attract investments of Rs 1 lakh crore and generate 5 lakh jobs in the State," as per the draft policy.

It also seeks to double the exports to Rs 2 lakh crore, revalidate at least 100 State statutes (Acts, Rules and guidelines) and make them more suitable to investors, build supply chain facilities and infrastructure across 22 districts.

The policy is currently being given final touches and is scheduled to be released later this month.

The new policy is expected to propose regulatory reforms in land, labour and institutional mechanism.

"The policy emphasises the need for a balanced regional growth across the state. This would be strategised through fiscal and non-fiscal interventions that assist dispersal of the industry to the industrially backward areas of the state and infrastructure-led geographical dispersal driven by mega projects and industrial corridors," according to the draft policy.

It seeks to provide critical support to MSMEs for enhancing productivity, quality and market access and promoting the entrepreneurial spirit.

The draft policy aims at promoting cluster development, regulatory easing and provision of attractive fiscal incentives for the future growth of the MSME sector.

To promote "brand Haryana", this policy envisages enhancing investor satisfaction through the entire business cycle -- from investment promotion to after-care.

Further, it lays emphasis on district level investment promotion and facilitation and three-tier grievances redressal committees to address industrial disputes and grievances.

The focus of the policy is on employment generation through the promotion of greenfield and brownfield investments, adoption of a labour-intensive approach to industrial infrastructure development and maintenance, execution of strategic skill development initiatives and technological interventions.

According to the draft policy, the state has embodied the philosophy - "from red tape to red carpet" and continued emphasis on improving the regulatory environment for the industry. Haryana ranks 3rd in the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) in India.

Haryana also benefits from a unique strategic locational advantage, with nearly 57 per cent of the state falling within the National Capital Region.

Key infrastructure projects in the pipeline include Integrated Hisar Aviation Hub, KMP Economic Corridor, IMT Sohna, Global City Gurugram and a Multi-Modal Logistics Hub at Narnaul.

To boost investment, the state has identified seven thrust sectors -- auto, auto components and light engineering; agro-based, food processing and allied industry; textiles and apparels; electronics system design & manufacturing; defence and aerospace manufacturing; pharmaceutical and medical devices; as well as chemical and petrochemicals.

The focus sectors and clusters will be supported through preferential fiscal support, regulatory easing and strategic interventions for the development of specific infrastructure.

In support of micro-enterprises in rural areas, the Haryana Gramin Udyogik Vikas Yojna is also being introduced under this policy.

A process re-engineering exercise will be conducted to identify and remove redundant processes and minimise interdependency of approvals --such as change of land use (CLU) requirement for obtaining factory registration/licence and consent to establish (CTE)/ consent to operate (CTO) wherever viable.

On labour reforms, the policy envisages that mega and ultra-mega projects will be exempted from the purview of all labour laws in Haryana, except The Minimum Wages Act, 1948, for three years.

The limit of the number of workers for exemption from coverage under Factories Act, 1948 will be increased from 20 to 40 (for the industries operating without the aid of power) and from 10 to 20 (for the industries operating with aid of power).

Regarding the increase in overtime working hours under the Factories Act, 1948, the allowed overtime working hours will be increased from present norms of 50 hours per quarter to 115 hours quarter, which, as per the policy, would be immensely beneficial to the workers as well as the entrepreneurs.

The provision for allowing three shifts working for women will be made for Data Park centres.

Panchayat land will be made available to the industry on lease to promote industrialisation in rural areas. A suitable policy will be formulated in this regard.

With the government seeking suggestions from various stakeholders, including Haryana legislators for the policy, opposition Congress MLA Varun Chaudhary said action taken report on the industrial policy-2015 should also be included, and changes made in the new policy vis-a-vis the preceding policy should be highlighted.

"It is a standard practice that the newer policies include the action taken report on earlier policies to build the foundation for new policies," said Chaudhary, a legislator from Mullana constituency.

He also suggested the state government rethink the "sweeping changes" it proposes to make in the labour laws.

"No industrial reform can be carried out at the cost of the labour/ workers, and the state is bound under the Constitution to safeguard the interests of the industrial labour," he said.