Centre sets up panel of state ministers to prepare roadmap for industrial growth

The centre today constituted a high level committee of state industry ministers to prepare a roadmap for accelerating investment and industrial growth in the country.

The committee will have industry ministers of Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana as members, a government release said today.

The high power committee will formulate a framework for state specific investment promotion strategies based on each state's natural endowments and potential.

The panel will also work out a single window mechanism to simplify and rationalise the licensing and clearance procedures required to start and run a business in the states.

Besides, the high level committee will prepare an outline for state level skill development plans based on a skill mapping exercise in terms of demand and supply of skill sets within a state so as to facilitate the achievement of the objectives of the state specific industrial strategy.

The terms of reference of the committee also includes the preparation of guidelines for the creation of an `Industrial Land Bank' consisting of available waste and fallow lands, lands locked up in industrial units/areas that are sick/defunct and lying unutilised.

With several major projects held up for want of alternative sites, the government wants to make sure that industrial projects leave aside productive agricultural land as far as possible, the release said.