Clean Ganga, Digital India schemes to benefit state: CII

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 19

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has expressed the hope that the Clean Ganga and Digital India programmes of the Union government will benefit Uttarakhand in a big way.

Addressing a press conference here yesterday, Shreekant Somany, the newly elected Chairman of the CII Northern Region, said the CII was committed to supporting the union government on the Clean Ganga and Digital India programmes and these programmes would benefit Uttarakhand significantly.

Somany said the CII had played an active role towards making micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) policy, recently introduced by the state government. “Uttarakhand being a landlocked state, connectivity is a concern. We believe that the proposed Dedicated Freight Corridor can benefit the state. It passes through Saharanpur. To leverage this corridor, multi-modal logistics hubs at Pantanagar and Haridwar are to be set up,” Somany added.

Referring to the rebuilding of the disaster-torn areas of Uttarakhand, he said the CII would continue to rebuild schools and improve the quality of education in the disaster-hit areas of the state.

He disclosed that in Uttarakhand, CII member companies had adopted 15 Industrial Training Institutes. “We would focus on converting some of these ITIs into institutes of excellence. We would impress upon the state governments to come up with technical education policies,” Somany said.

Sharing the CII theme and focus areas in Uttarakhand for the year 2015-16, Prashant Mahadik, Chairman of the CII Uttarakhand State Council, said the CII would focus on policy advocacy for creating an eco-system conducive for investments and business providing employment avenues to the youth and rebuilding the disaster-hit areas in the state.

CII delegation meets CM

A CII delegation led by Shreekant Somany, newly elected Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Northern Region, met Chief Minister Harish Rawat here yesterday.

Somany invited Uttarakhand to participate at the upcoming Invest North 2015. He described it as a platform where the state can showcase investment opportunities it offers to both domestic and global investors. The delegation suggested the setting up of four joint groups between the industry and the state government – to address issues related to power, labour, connectivity and simplifying doing business.

The delegation met Chief Secretary N Ravi Shanker.