Chhattisgarh Shows The Way

Now it is the turn of the newly-created state of Chhattisgarh to become IT savvy. A recent state government notification, facilitates numerous facilities to new small scale industrial and IT units. According to the notification, small industrial and IT units established after November 1, 2001 will get annual interest subsidy of five percent maximum to the tune of Rs 5 lakh. Entrepreneurs of the schedule caste and schedule tribe community will get interest subsidy of 10 percent, but have been exempted from the maximum limit.

Interest subsidy period would be counted from day one of loan distribution to the next five years. Interest subsidy would be provided only against basic interest. Subsidy on delayed fees or on any other payment would not be provided. New small scale industrial and IT units will get interest subsidy on interest paid to financial institutions for their active capital, fixed loan or both.

Interestingly, the state of Chhattisgarh came into being on November 1, 2000 as the 26th in the country. Although it is ninth largest in the country in terms of area, it is the richest state in mineral resources like coal, iron-ore, bauxite and diamonds. And now, it is making a great pitch to investors citing a lot of advantages like surplus power, social and industrial peace and natural resources.

It is not only Chhatisgarh which is in the forefront as far as promotion of IT is concerned. The state of Uttaranchal, which came into being at the same time, is also pitching itself very hard to IT investors. In the process, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh--the two large states of which Chhatisgarh and Uttaranchal were earlier a part--are loosing out. Both of them seem to be going rather slow as far as IT is concerned.

No doubt, it is very heartening to note that almost all the states in the country are betting big on IT. Apart from the often-repeated examples of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, some other states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra etc are also going out of their way to promote IT.

On the other hand, there are also a number of states which seem to merely doing lip service as far as the promotion of IT is concerned. These include Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Jharkhand, West Bengal etc. Interestingly, Delhi, the country's capital, which should have been taking a lead, has not even started talking about it. Although Sheila Dikshit, the Chief Minister of Delhi, has been making a lot of noises about IT, very little has actually happened. And now, Ajit Jogi, the Chief Minister of Chhatisgarh, is showing her the way.