The investment climate in Assam

The seventh India Industrial Fair UDYAM 2022, a four-day event which is underway in Guwahati from Friday has brought to national focus that the environment in Assam is now rife for investors looking for fresh areas for setting up shops. With militancy almost becoming history, and the general mindset of the people changing for good, the investment climate in Assam has indeed improved manifold in the past couple of years. The ball for attracting investors to the state was set rolling by the first BJP-led government headed by Sarbananda Sonowal when an Investors' Summit was held in Guwahati in February 2017. But even before that several big names were already here, some of them being Unilever or Hindustan Lever, Godrej, ITC, Britannia, and Dabur, to name a few. What must also keep in mind is that though there is a general belief that big industrial houses do not prefer Assam, the reality is that the presence of the Tatas in the state is a story more than 60 years old, and they continue to have a very significant presence in the tea sector. On Friday, while inaugurating UDYAM 2022, Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma very rightly said that Assam is now one of the most important destinations for investors. He has also announced that the present government will from June follow a very flexible policy for those investors who want to invest Rs 100 crore. Proposals of such investors would be handled by a group of officers who will meet the various requirements – like land, subsidies, power connections etc – in the shortest possible time. Chief Minister Sarma has also painted a very positive picture of the investment scenario of the state by pointing out that there are at present about 67,000 MSME units functioning in the state, and that these put together contribute about 39 per cent of Assam's GDP. More investments and the establishment of more MSME units in the state mean the creation of more jobs and other employment opportunities. While the fading away of militant groups is a very positive signal for investors, the State Government's bold step to discourage donation-seekers is also an equally important development. With the State Government improving the overall power production, and with corruption coming down, it is a fact that Assam is on the right track insofar as more investments are concerned.