Punjab is rapidly emerging as the hotbed of investment with several industrial houses keen to work in the State.
Infosys announced it would start construction of its 25,000 seat Mohali facility within one month and complete the first stage of the project within 18 months.
Infosys Executive Vice President Ramadas Kamath informed this to Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal during an interaction.
“The new facility at Mohali would be a win-win situation for both the company and State. We have more than 2,500 employees of Punjabi origin who are keen to shift to Mohali,” Kamath said adding that once the facility starts it would give a boost to the economy of the entire area.
The Deputy Chief Minister also held meetings with other industrial groups.
Multinational Volvo said it was keen to enter into a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the Punjab Government for the Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) in Amritsar, besides considering setting up a manufacturing facility for Volvo cars in Punjab.
Volvo India Managing Director (MD) Kamal Bali and Volvo Buses MD VRV Sriprasad, during their interaction with the Deputy Chief Minister and his team, said there was a huge scope for cooperation in city bus and bus rapid transport systems.
Bali said,”Volvo is seriously considering Punjab as a destination for setting up a car manufacturing plant and would send its team to make an on ground assessment.”
The Deputy Chief Minister gave positive response to entering a joint venture with Volvo for BRTS.
In another development, Nextwealth Entrepreneurs gave a presentation on how investors could be attracted to establish BPOs in tier-two and tier-three towns. Nextwealth Founder and MD Dr. Sridhar Mitta said it had expertise in creating jobs for youth in small towns by coming out with small workable business models.
Detailing how his model worked, Dr Mitta said small entrepreneurs with an investment of Rs one crore over two years were employing 250 to 300 rural youth in such projects in Salem.
The Deputy Chief Minister offered Nextwealth to generate Punjabi entrepreneurs who could be funded by cooperative banks. He also offered that these projects could be run in new women colleges which were coming up in the State or even in skill development centres.
There were also fruitful meetings with Strand Lifesciences and Puravankara group. Strand Lifesciences proposed to establish a smart laboratory in Punjab offering personalised medicine for cancer and other life threatening diseases.
In another meeting, Toyota Vice President Vikram Kirloskar offered to set up an ITI in Punjab to give training in automotive repair and maintenance. The Deputy CM said the State could even enter into a joint venture with Toyota for establishing this facility.