IAS Ajitabh Sharma revamps policies to change industrial face of Rajasthan

Lights never go off before 9 pm at the chamber of RIICO chairman and industries principal secretary Ajitabh Sharma. A sense of urgency is palpable in the corridors. If Rajasthan government has to overhaul the industry policy and make it more attractive and industry friendly, the proverbial “burning midnight oil” has to be evident here.

Ajitabh Sharma, who is considered expert in policy matters, is busy designing as many 8 policies in his drawing board. These policies have to come out by September ahead of the grand investor summit planned for 9-11 December, 2024.

“Ajitabh Sir is a hard task master. But he leads by example. I was there with him when he churned out the Solar Policy in 2019. It is one of the best policy documents ever in the state. All subsequent policy documents are based on that policy only. We expect the same for the industrial policies also,” said an official, who works closely with Sharma.

Sharma is working on making Rajasthan Industrial Promotion Scheme (RIPS) more attractive with introduction of practical and industry-friendly sops, incentives and concessions for large investments. RIPS  can be the one magnet which could pull large projects in the state resulting in generating employment and long term revenue for the state government 

He is also revamping the Industrial Development policy, MSME policy, Export Promotion Policy, Land Aggregation Policy, Logistics, Warehousing and Logistics Park policy, Garment and Apparel Policy, Data Centre policy and One district One product policy.

“Most of these policies are already existing. But provisions have gone redundant in fast changing industrial environment. For quick industrial growth and job creation, new provisions and attractive parameters need to be added in these policies,” said a senior official of industries department.

For that Ajitabh Sharma has set up groups of officers for every policy. They study policies of different states and compare them with current industry needs and norms. Sharma reviews their observations and research and finalise the best possible provisions and parameters to be incorporated in the policy.

Ajitabh Sharma focuses on realisation for success in Investors Summit

Every investor summit ends with lakhs of crores of investment commitments. But not even 15 percent realise on ground, making it a futile effort. Most of these summits have taken place towards end of government's tenure.

But Bhajan Lal government has decided to organise it in its first year itself giving ample time for departments to facilitate realisation of investment commitments made by the industry.

For realisation of MoUs, policies play an important role. Industrialist compare policies of different states and then act we due diligence decide to invest. “After the Solar Policy, Rajasthan has been able to attract large chunk of investment in solar power sector. It has now become the largest solar power producing state.

With the revamped and the renewed industrial policy, we expect to attract huge investments in core industrial sector also,” said a senior official of industries department, who is involved in policy making.