After a four-year hiatus, the mining industry that has
started operations in the State is yet to pick up. There is not much hope that
the season that is to begin next month will bring about any major change in the
scenario that will lead to a rise in operations. Tourism, the other major bread
earner in Goa, remains fickle as ever with little being done to even keep the
beaches clean. Manufacturing has never been a big employer or contributor to
the State exchequer. In recent times, it is the services sector that has been
contributing the most to the Goan economy and the role it plays increasing.
Yet, there is little the government does or has done to promote this sector.
At various times, industry and its bodies have complained of
Goa being investor unfriendly. A World Bank report had ranked Goa at 19 among
Indian States in its Ease of Doing Business Survey 2015. The Goa Chamber of
Commerce and Industry in its pre-Budget memorandum to the government had spoken
of the ‘unhealthy environment for industrial growth’ in the State, and just
recently ASSOCHAM had produced figures to show that the growth rate of
investments in Goa had fallen drastically. To change this, Goa needs to take a
leaf out of the Telangana book of doing business. Goa has already signed a
memorandum of understanding with Telangana to become knowledge partners in
development of IT. A good move, but it now has to take this forward.
Telangana is young, the youngest State in India, and has
taken giant leaps through out of the box measures to attract the top companies
to come and do business in that State. The process is online and permissions
are granted within 15 days, with the company that makes the application at
liberty to sue the State on the 16th day if permissions have not been granted.
Can an entrepreneur in Goa conceive the possibility of starting a business
without visiting a government office, meeting a minister and then waiting for
weeks and sometimes months before the application is processed? That is what
Goa has to learn from Telangana – how to transform itself into an investor
friendly State.
But there’s more that Goa can learn from Telangana when it
comes to industry-government relations. While Goa has earmarked 100 acres to
set up an IT park and about 150 acres for the electronic manufacturing cluster,
Telangana has earmarked about 1000 acres of land for electronic systems designs
and manufacturing (ESDM). Goa does not even begin to compare with Telangana in
this aspect. Given the size of the two States and the paucity of land in Goa,
that can be excused, but what cannot be condoned are the delays in clearing
applications or making available the required infrastructure for a company
willing to start a business in Goa.
As the Telangana minister said, when that State sets up an
industrial park, it ensures that all the required support infrastructure is
also in place and this includes power, water, roads, to the extent that a
company can begin operations from day one. Can Goa emulate this? Herald had
earlier reported how companies whose applications were cleared by the Investment
Promotion Board have been made to wait months before the electricity load can
be granted to them. This too has to change.
If Telangana can do it, why can’t Goa? For the State, the IT
industry and its related sectors, given their non-polluting nature, could be
the best option not just for investment but also for creating employment for
locals. This is the area that the government must focus on. Hyderabad,
Bangalore have benefitted by the IT industry boom, why shouldn’t Goa? Some
three months back the Chief Minister had said that Goa would surpass its
neighbouring States where the IT industry is concerned by 2023, but there has
been little done to translate that statement into reality. The State needs
action, rather than statements. The difference is that where other States act,
Goa speaks. That has to change if Goa is to attract investment.
