Union Minister for Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu has requested Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami to come up with a start-up policy. In his meeting with the Chief Minister on Thursday, Mr. Prabhu also discussed various infrastructure-related projects for the State.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event here, he said the Centre would launch a programme specially for Tamil Nadu. “The start-up policy would be a good thing because they [the start-ups] can create new jobs and provide innovation opportunities for youngsters,” Mr. Prabhu said.
Mr. Prabhu also said the Commerce Ministry would come out with an agriculture export policy, which would also deal with links with airlines, mainly for export of perishable goods.
New industrial policy
Earlier, speaking at the inauguration of the Ambattur Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association’s international machine tools exhibition – ACMEE 2018 – at the Chennai Trade Centre, Mr. Prabhu said that the new industrial policy policy that would be unveiled soon was aimed at modernising existing industries and bringing in industries that would create more jobs.
This would be done by partnering with the States that could create the necessary infrastructure. “We have already decided to partner with Tamil Nadu to ensure that industrial development happens in the State,” he said. The [new industrial] policy talks about this partnership and it ensures that we work together,” he said.
Recalling former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Kamaraj’s visionary step in starting an industrial estate way back in 1963, with the government providing the infrastructure to entrepreneurs who would develop products, he said the policy was being developed keeping this aspect in mind.
Deputy Chief Minster O. Panneerselvam said Tamil Nadu accounted for the largest number of MSMEs in India, providing employment to one crore people.
