The State government will introduce a scheme to provide ‘green credit’ in a bid to promote environment-friendly industries. Aruna Sundararajan, MD, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), said the scheme is expected to take the State to a higher level of industrial development. She was inaugurating ‘Brand Summit 2014’, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Kerala chapter, here on Tuesday.
The KSIDC has chalked out a multi-pronged strategy to promote the ‘Made-in-Kerala’ brand. The strategy is to leverage the State’s inherent advantages such as the ‘green and clean image’ to promote certain niche industries. It will focus on promoting environment friendly industries such as organic fabrics, organic packaging materials and knowledge and technology-based industries. The seed capital for the new scheme has already been provided in the State budget, she said.
Pointing out that many countries had literally banned imports of Chinese goods because of their poor track record in environmental standards and labour practices, she said the State had the inherent advantages of being environment-friendly and having best labour practices and values. She said the government would soon set up start-up villages exclusively for women entrepreneurs. The plan is to groom at least 1,000 women entrepreneurs. CII is also organising a special training for potential women directors.
