Amarinder Singh, on a mission to woo India Inc. in Mumbai on Monday (April 10) after taking charge as 26th chief minister of Punjab on March 16, met with success the next day. On Tuesday, he tweeted that tyre company Ceat could set up a manufacturing unit in the state, in addition to IT projects. He also met Anand Mahindra and Hindustan Unilever MD Sanjiv Mehta for possible projects in the state.
"Met with @hvgoenka & welcomed his interest in setting up a tyre manufacturing unit and IT backend set up in Punjab," Singh tweeted, after meeting RPG Enterprises Harsh V Goenka.
Among the sops offered to industrialists was power at Rs5 per unit.
On Monday Singh met corporate honchos including Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran, ICICI Bank CEO and Managing Director Chanda Kochhar, Goldman Sachs India Chairman Sonjoy Chatterjee and Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej, according to news agency IANS.
Kochhar is reported to have agreed to explore the possibility of shifting ICICI Bank's back-end operations to SAS Nagar adjoining Chandigarh in the next stage of the lender's expansion, the agency quoted a state government spokesman as saying.
Chandrasekaran is supposed to have given "assurances" of visiting the state shortly to explore a venture there.
Met with @hvgoenka & welcomed his interest in setting up a tyre manufacturing unit and IT backend set up in Punjab. pic.twitter.com/7w969OWvQj
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) April 11, 2017
Met Reliance ADAG Chairman @anilambani over breakfast in Mumbai & discussed possibilities of investment in Punjab. pic.twitter.com/cIlq0gWNsj
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) April 11, 2017
Had a useful discussion with @anandmahindra ji of Mahindra & Mahindra on digital and other projects for Punjab. pic.twitter.com/ndVaTBrgjY
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) April 11, 2017
Have requested @HUL_News CEO & MD Sanjiv Mehta ji to work on garbage processing for power generation. pic.twitter.com/OxFmbZd5GI
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) April 11, 2017
The Congress Party won the Punjab Assembly elections last month, defeating the incumbent government led by Prakash Singh Badal. The Congress lost to rival BJP in Utttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and failed to form a government in Manipur and Goa despite emerging as the single-largest party. The BJP formed the government in both states along with its allies.
Once known for its agricultural prosperity, Punjab later became one of the states witnessing a high number of farmer suicides and slowing economy growth. The GDP growth rate fell to 5.96 percent in 2015-16 from 10.16 percent a decade ago, according to CSO data.
Punjab's debt was projected to rise to Rs124,471 crore by the end of 2015-16, according to estimates by the state government.
From a segment-wise perspective, agriculture constitues about 17 percent of the state's GDP, while services and manufacturing account for about 35 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
There are around 475 large and small industries in the state providing jobs to about 2.66 lakh people. The state's economic survey forecast the number of industries to increase to 500 by the end of 2015-16, adding about 14,000 jobs in the process.
Punjab exported goods and services worth Rs27,235 crore in 2014-15 and estimated it to reach Rs29,958 crore in the next fnancial year.
