A growth oriented and inclusive budget, says CII

Chennai:

Confederation of Indian Industry has hailed the state budget as a progressive, growth oriented and inclusive budget.

B Santhanam, chairman, CII Southern Region, said Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has given more thrust to social sectors with massive allocation of Rs 17,731 crore for school education, Rs 7005 crore for healthcare  besides other welfare measures. This would  bring prosperity to the people in the weaker sections of the society.

Hailing the plan to develop 53,000 acres of land for industrial development all over the State with special focus on southern districts and formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for implementation of Madurai-Thoothukudi-Industrial Corridor – a recommendation of CII, he said this would bring more investment into the region and also create employment opportunities for people in Southern Tamil Nadu.  

Meanwhile, Madras Chamber of commerce and Industry has hailed the state government’s move to host the Global Investors Meet in Chennai in October 2014 to promote the investments into the State.

Reacting to the state budget announcements, president of MCCI T Shivaraman said that that the move is appreciable.

“It would be ideal to involve the Chambers of Commerce in the state to take the maximum advantage from this meet. An enabling industrial environment is the need of the hour,” he stated.

Proposal to strengthen power transmission infrastructure with Japan International cooperation Agency (JICA) funding and setting up  the Green Energy Corridor proposed for the evacuation of wind power with financial assistance from KfW, are moves in the positive direction, he said.

He also said more structural and policy reforms are required in the power sector for a long term solution.

He also said while the continued thrust on skill development is welcome but more collaboration with Industries and Industry Chambers in this initiative is required.

The chamber is of the view that the new initiatives proposed may have to be implemented with clear-cut timelines keeping Vision 2023 targets in mind, he added.

Ganesh Vasudevan, CEO, Indiaproperty.com, said the budget allocation for infrastructure development in Chennai and Greater Chennai could boost the realty sector. “Even though the boundary of Chennai city was expanded in 2011 not much work has been seen in the new localities. Hopefully with the state government realizing its impact on the demand and sales of residential properties, we’ll see some action especially in terms of improving connectivity, laying of sewage and water lines, garbage disposal and improvement in public transport,” he added.