Growth, Integrity, Security: LG Manoj Sinha Charts Roadmap for India’s Economy at Srinagar CII Meet

Growth, Integrity, Security: LG Manoj Sinha Charts Roadmap for India’s Economy at Srinagar CII Meet The Controlled Atmosphere Cold Storages here, their capacity has increased two-and-a-half times in four years. Investment and Industrial Units, Medical Colleges, Super Specialty Hospitals in large numbers are coming up in Srinagar and Jammu. Hospitality sector too got the status of an industry via this policy, said the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir while addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry Meet in Srinagar. In the last five years in Jammu & Kashmir more than 4,000 hotels have been constructed. Some are worth Rs 200 crore and some are valued at Rs 5 crore. This investment comes around to Rs 50,000 crore if we assume Rs 10 crore per hotel. If we place 4 cars with a hotel then there is an esimated 20,000 new cars. Ten thousand cars belong to hotel owners and 10,000 to the youth. There are peace stakeholders who do not want unrest in Kashmir. There are many industrialists and business leaders in Kashmir. Along with them are the street vendors people, shikara people, houseboat owners, a large number of handicraft and handloom owners. This large number is a large population in Jammu and Kashmir who has tasted the economic gloom. They have seen how economic development takes place in times of peace and want it to happen. There are some people who still follow the same narrative. Their numbers have dwindled considerably. I keep saying this again and again, what is the biggest need of this country? And I believe that it is rapid economic growth. And that growth must reache the poor and rural areas, LG said. This is the biggest need of the country. What is the second biggest problem of the country? I believe that it is corruption and there is no alternative to corruption. Where there are humans, there will naturally be corruption. The government has been successful in establishing technology and system to a large extent. The third major challenge, I repeatedly tell you all, is terrorism in the country. This is the biggest challenge for the country. I would like to tell the industrialists that if you remain silent spectators then your business is likely to be ruined. Moving away from Jammu and Kashmir, if I look at the national scenario, I feel that in this time of global competition and trade, CII will have to work on many fronts. The primary responsibility is research and development.I think the country must consider how to increase investment in research and development.And how to attract private investment. When we look at the rest of the developed countries of the world, I think these questions naturally arise in one’s mind. You all know that for many years our investment in research and development was only up to 0.65% of GDP. I believe that in this regard, some good beginnings have been made last month. According to the export figures for the month of August, there has been an increase in exports in electronics, petroleum products, drugs, pharma, engineering goods, gems and jewellery. There is another aspect related to the MSME issue. I was looking at a report from June this year, according to which only 15% of our MSMEs has been able to adopt technologies like AI so far. India’s economy has made remarkable progress and you all have a big contribution in this.. India’s remains the fastest growing economy. And in the first quarter of this financial year, the Indian GDP growth rate reached 7.8%.This is better than expected and we need to maintain this momentum. And I think your role in this will be very important .I hope that you will definitely come up with some concrete suggestions in the upcoming meetings, LG said.