Industry wants govt to create enabling environment

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 5

Industry doyens from across Punjab today urged the state government to create an enabling environment for the growth of the private sector, which would help it become a major recruiter of the unemployed youth.

A paradigm shift in the education sector, skilling the youth according to the industry’s needs, promoting start-ups and young entrepreneurs, providing regular and efficient labour – these were the main suggestions that came from the industry during the government’s Ghar Ghar Rozgar Yojana Employers’ Meet held at the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Mohali.

Leading industrialists of the region, including SP Oswal, Rajinder Gupta, Bhavdeep Sardana and Sandeep Jain, and Finance Minister Manpreet Badal were present.

The meet was aimed at getting feedback from the industry on manpower requirement to frame policies accordingly. With limited scope of providing employment in the government sector, and new investment slow to flow into Punjab, the state is looking at the private sector to recruit more and more youth.

Addressing the industrialists, Manpreet said corruption and unemployment were the biggest enemies of mankind. “We are the ‘make generation’. We need to rebuild the state by creating an economically robust Punjab, which can be done by working collectively,” he added.

AS Mittal, vice president of Sonalika Tractors, said the government had promised to provide power to the industry at the rate of Rs 5 per unit. “Please implement it as soon as possible. Also, don’t shut down the state’s own power generation plants. If there is excess power, the industry can utilise it. Reduce the tariff and this excess power can be provided to revive the steel industry in Mandi Gobindgarh,” he said.

Eminent economist Isher Judge Ahluwalia admitted that unemployment was the most challenging problem faced by Punjab. “Ghar Ghar Rozgar is an emergency measure. But you need to do much more to attract private investment in thrust areas such as textiles and logistics,” she said, adding that public-private partnership in infrastructure building would be the ideal way to go ahead.

Bhavdeep Sardana, who is creating a major food park in Phagwara, asked the government to set up clusters of specific sectors such as food processing and encourage contract farming.

“When the businesses grow, they would go in for CSR (corporate social responsibility) in the surrounding areas. This would help the state have holistic development, where industry partners the government,” he said.

Krish Iyer, CEO of Walmart India, said retail drove consumption and consumption drove growth. “Punjab is a big consumption state, so there is immense scope for growth.” He asked the government to bring in a retail policy. “GST had created a borderless country. Logistics and warehousing, along with retail, will drive growth, especially in a food-growing state such as Punjab. The state should continue its focus on ‘ease of doing business’,” he said. The company has opened five cash-and-carry stores in the state and plans to add 10 more.

Sarvjit Singh Samra, who has set up the Capital Small Finance Bank, said he had a policy of recruiting local talent. His bank recently graduated from being a local area bank to a small finance bank with 77 branches. Samra said he would add 30 branches this year and recruit 3,500 by 2022. “The attrition rate in the bank is almost nil as we recruit local youth,” he said.

Duty-bound to help govt: Oswal

SP Oswal, chairman of Vardhman Group, says job creation is of the utmost importance and the industry is duty-bound to help the government. “There is a need to create gender equality in the job market. The industry is taking the lead by providing more jobs to women. The previous government had made changes in labour laws to ensure that women can work round the clock, and we provided them safe hostels and transportation. As of now, 3,500 out of our 10,000 employees are women,” he adds.

Unemployment alarming: Economist 

Eminent economist Isher Judge Ahluwalia admits that unemployment is the most challenging problem faced by Punjab. “According to a survey by the Labour Bureau, the unemployment rate among 18-29-year-olds in the state is 16.6 per cent (the national average is 10 per cent). Economic growth in Punjab has been very slow. The state missed the bus in the 1990s, when it failed to create an enabling environment for attracting private investment and employment,” she says.