State Needs to Create an Ecosystem for Producing World Class Products to Compete Internationally
Industry to Support Hill Economy by Skilling, Hand Holding and by Providing Marketing Linkages
Dehradun (The Hawk): Contribution to GDP is from specific sectors and location centric, to bring all-inclusive growth, the state needs to focus on equal opportunities and provide avenues to key sectors like Tourism and Hospitality, IT, Start Ups, high yield agriculture to make economic growth more sustainable said Dr Sharad Singh Negi, Vice Chairman, Uttarakhand Rural Development and Migration Commission while addressing at the CII Uttarakhand Annual Session. He further said that industry can support hill economy in skilling, handholding and providing marketing linkages. He informed that 8-10% people are self-employed in the rural areas and small towns connected to main roads are doing well.
Dr Sanjeev Chopra, Former Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration during his address expressed that for double digit growth of the state our startups needs to grow with new innovative ideas. State needs to create an ecosystem for producing top quality produce which can compete internationally. He mentioned that high value Agri produce of the State is a very positive development. He opined that for any economy to be vibrant - Sarkar, Samaj and Bazar plays an important role and economy will be progressive, wherever all these elements are connected.
While delivering the opening remarks Ms Sonia Garg, Chairperson, CII Uttarakhand State Council & CEO, Forace Industries Pvt Ltd shared that to realise the vision of doubling the Sate GDP in the next 5 years the state needs to focus on enhancing key growth drivers and aim for improvement to attain robust and inclusive growth in the State, providing opportunities to existing industries to go for expansion by reducing compliances and creating required infrastructure for MSMEs. She also stressed on setting up Special Economic Zone in the state for boosting exports.
Mr Bipen Gupta, Vice Chairman, CII Uttarakhand State Council & Director, G B Springs said State today stands at an important juncture, where we need to re-visit our strategies for growth and employment generation for times to come. We need to leverage sectors where we have competitive advantages as shared by the eminent speakers such as Tourism, Education, Healthcare, agri, horticulture, MSME and IT.
The panel discussion was organized on the theme Uttarakhand 2.0: Enhancing Key Growth Drivers and the objective of the session was to discuss and deliberate on the key growth drivers such as Tourism, Horticulture, Infrastructure development, IT, employment generation, innovation and entrepreneurship to attain robust and inclusive growth in the State. The session was moderated by Mr Arun Kumar, Factory Head, Honeywell Electrical Devices & Systems India Ltd, Selaqui. Panellists at the session were Mr Dipak Prakash Shinde, Factory Manager, ITC Ltd – Haridwar, Mr Yaatendra Mamgain, Chief Executive Officer, Bakrichhap Agro Tourism & Natural Products Pvt Ltd, Mr Bakul Sikka, Circle Head Uttarakhand, HDFC Bank Limited, Mr Anoop Nautiyal, Founder, SDS Foundation and Mr Harshit Gupta, Northern Region Chair – Young Indians CII Learning & Past Chair- Yi Dehradun, & Partner, N Kumar Gupta & Associates
The session was well attended by over 100 delegates from Industry, Institutions, Academia, NGOs and Civil Society