Lt Governor chairs high-level meeting on Industrial Investment

Srinagar, Jul 19: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha chaired a high-level meeting with senior officials to review status of Industrial Investment and to discuss strategies on boosting investments in a fast-track mode.
Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; Shaleen Kabra, Financial Commissioner Revenue; Dheeraj Gupta, Principal Secretary, Forest Department; Santosh Dattatreya Vaidya, Principal Secretary, Finance Department; H. Rajesh Prasad, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department; Dr Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, Principal Secretary to Lt Governor; Vikramjit Singh, Commissioner /Secretary, Industries & Commerce Department and senior officers attended the meeting.
The Lt Governor was briefed on investment in different sectors, status of Land allotment, new Industrial estates, recent steps taken by the Department to fast-track grounding investment, policy initiatives, promoting start-ups among youth especially technology based and scalable startups and achievements in exports of major products like Carpets, papier mache, shawls, chain stitch.
The Lt Governor directed for proactive steps to increase private industrial estates equipped with necessary infrastructure.
Emphasising that the women-led enterprises will shape the future of J&K, the Lt Governor said we must ensure their increasing presence in the economy and designate more exclusive industrial estates for women entrepreneurs like the one established in Udhampur to facilitate women-run businesses and startups.
The Lt Governor underscored that 2023 will be the year of Agro-Industrial revolution powered by Holistic Agriculture Development Plan (HADP) and increased production in Agriculture & Allied Sectors that will offer vast opportunities to agro-industries.
He directed the officials that the potential of new cold storage, cold chains must be tapped to ensure rapid economic growth flows to rural areas of UT.
In order to scale up further infrastructure, the Lt Governor directed officials to push for greater private investment in inland ports, container depots, food processing units.
Directions were also issued to develop a mechanism for regular meetings with representatives of old industrial estates to resolve their issues.
Highlighting that GI Tagging has offered enormous potential to transform handicraft sector and to boost export, the Lt Governor said authenticity of products like Pashmina must be ensured for export.
The Lt Governor also directed the concerned officials to accelerate the development of basic amenities like connectivity, power and water facilities in the new Industrial estates.
The Lt Governor also called for replicating the best models of Industrial Estates developed in other parts of the country.