Key Industries, Industrial Potential & Trends
Traditional Industries –
Handicrafts, Handloom,
Wool Based Industry, Khadi & Village Industries
Uttarakhand is host to several handicrafts industries
like carpet weaving, woodcarving, brassware and
copper based industries.The state plans to revive
these industries to ensure adequate backward and
forward linkages by way of centrally sponsored
schemes. Handloom industry is critical for
employment generation in rural areas.The state of
Uttarakhand plans to tap the potential of these skillrich
industries by way of infrastructure support,
training, design development, new techniques, packing,
marketing events and exhibitions.
Wool and wax based industry and khadi and village
industries are some of the key traditional industries
operating in the state.While the wax-based industry
is an important handicraft industry in the hill regions
of the state, large section of the population in the
state is associated with the wool based industry.The
State has assigned due priority to develop these
industries to their potential.
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is the emerging thrust area at the
global level and is poised to make significant
contributions in agriculture, human and animal health
care, environment management and process
industries. Being host to vast diversity of flora and
fauna and rare species of plants and animals, gives
Uttarakhand a natural advantage in the sector.
The state of Uttarakhand will accord the units coming
under this sector with the industry status and aims to
establish an internationally competitive business
infrastructure and environment for the industry in the state. Further, a biotechnology park is to be
developed that will integrate resources and provide a
focused institutional set up for accelerated
commercial growth of bio-technology and bioinformatics.
Information Technology
Given the state’s high literacy rate and concentration
of high quality educational institutions across the
districts, Uttarakhand has the potential for developing
as a preferred destination for IT and ITES along with
hardware production. Beside this, with the
establishment of an STPI earth station at Dehradun
and proposed Earth Station at other locations, the
state offers high-speed connectivity.
The state has come up with incentives for the
industry like exemption on electricity duty on
generator sets, stamp duty concessions and
rationalisation of land use and conversion charges.
Industry based on Herbal and Medicinal Plants
Uttarakhand is host to a vast variety of rare species of
herbs, medicinal plants and aromatic plant species.
Significant value addition can be made in the industry
to exploit the vast potential in the sector.
Manufacturing
The huge potential for hydel power generation (It is
estimated that Uttarakhand can generate 15,000 MW
of power in the state) and consequently the possibility
of a ready supply of cheap power makes the state an
ideal destination for manufacturing investment across a
whole range of sectors.The initiatives in buffering the
industrial infrastructure (Refer Section 3.6) and the
key investments (Refer Section 5.4) clearly add to the attraction of the state as a manufacturing base. High
literacy rates and the presence of high quality
educational institutions would ensure a ready supply
of low cost, good quality labour.
Tourism
The combination of a vast pool of resources and
initiatives to improve infrastructure should give
tourism a boost in the medium to long term. During
January 2004, a total of 4.70 lakh tourists arrived in
Uttarakhand of which 4.67 lakh were domestic
tourists. During 2003, total domestic tourists in the
State increased by 11 per cent as against that in 2002,
the foreign tourist inflow grew by more than 13 per
cent during the period.
With the coming up of several industries and the
associated residential and commercial facilities, there
will be massive revenue generation, leading to overall
development of the Integrated Industrial Estate and
Uttarakhand at large.
Source: www.ibef.org
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