Gurgaon now called 'India's Singapore'

Gurgaon, Sep 2: The industrial growth rate is surging in Gurgaon with a rate of 40 per cent as against the national growth rate of 28 per cent and is now rightly named as 'Millennium City' or 'India's Singapore'. This city, in the proximity of the national capital, is today considered as one of the major towns of the country. The importance of the city has been primarily due to the phenomenal growth witnessed in recent years in all spheres of development, particularly in urbanisation and creating an industrial climate.

A number of policy initiatives announced by the Haryana Government from time to time have provided an impetus for the rapid industrialisation in the district. The city's ideal location on the National Highway of Delhi-Jaipur road in close proximity of Indira Gandhi International Airport and its well developed infrastructure base like existing roads and communications network and electrification has made Gurgaon the choicest location for the industry.

High-tech and high value projects involving foreign collaboration with huge investment have come up in the area.

An annual turnover in the industrial sector in the district has crossed Rs 73,500 crore, with an investment of more than Rs 18,000 crore. The city today has 475 units of large and medium scale industries, involving an investment of Rs 13,138 crore. These units provide employment to 1,76,861 peoples.

The number of Small Scale industrial units are around 10,000 with an investment of Rs 4,867 crore and an employment capacity of 1,74,700.

With implementation of Haryana Industrial Promotion Rules-2007 by the Hooda Government, the investment in industrial units costing up to Rs five crore is expected to increase significantly. In Gurgaon, there are many prominent and prestigious units involved in the manufacturing of cars, motorcycles, automobile parts, telecommunication equipment, electrical goods, software development, hardware, sports goods, rubber products, readymade garments, light engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, terry towels, food items, air conditions, shoes, pesticides and insecticides.

In fact, with the collaboration of Suzuki Motors of Japan and the establishment of Maruti Udyog Ltd in early 80s, a new era of rapid industrialisation started. The growth gained further momentum after companies like Hero Honda Motors, Honda Motors of Japan, Suzuki Motors Cycles and many others came to the city leading to the establishment of several ancillary units that cater to the automobile companies.

The automobile companies in the city are producing passenger cars, motorcycles, scooters and auto components worth Rs 43,500 crore.

The other category of industry which has shown tremendous growth in the district are readymade garments. A cluster of such type of high-fashioned readymade garment units have come up in well developed industrial area of Udyog Vihar. These units are exporting their products to many foreign countries and earning valuable foreign exchange for the country.

The prestigious units here include Orient Craft Ltd, Pearl Global, GIVO, DCM Benetton, Gaurav International, Chelsea Mills and Modelma exports.

The city is emerging as an IT hub and there are about 400 IT and IT Enabled services (ITES) companies operating in the district.

It has emerged as a preferred destination for IT industry after the announcement of IT policy by Haryana government.

The total exports from the district in the IT and IT enabled services industry has touched a figure of Rs 18,000 crore at the end of last financial year 2007-08.

In the year 2006-07, this figure was Rs 15,000 crore and it was Rs 10,700 crore in 2005-06.

In Gurgaon, the industry was growing at the rate of about 40 per cent which is much above the national average of 28 per cent. In order to give boost to IT industry, a regional IT industry promotion office has been set up here.

Reputed IT companies like Hughes Software, Tata Consultancy service, HCL, GE Capital and Silicon Graphics Alcatel, American Express, Convergys, Motorola, Ericcson, Polaris, Sapient, Hewitt, Dell, Samsung, Aricent, Microsoft, IBM, Siemens, Fidelity, Genpact, Oracle, WNS, Google, Accenture, Wipro have their unit's here.

The electronic city in Gurgaon is spread over an area of 40 acres for hi-tech and export oriented electronics and IT industry.

The Software Technology Park spread over an area of 14,000 sq feet, was being developed within the city.

Information Technology and telecommunication complex in the electronic city has been planned for computer/software exports with world class facilities which include an earth station, tele conferencing, internet-mail service and other state-of-art communication services.

The ITES segment is the fastest growing segment of IT sector and most of the Multinational Companies are hifting their work requirement to outsource from India. The IT policy farmed by the State Government is likely to give further fillip to the industry with the creation of more employment opportunities.

The major incentive given to these units include relaxation in floor area ratio, rebate on registration, transfer of properties charges, exemption under Haryana Shops and Commercial Establishment Act.

The other industries established here are rubber and plastics, agro based and food processing, pharmaceuticals, electrical, leather as well as few companies in the field of biotechnology.

In prevailing liberal industrial atmosphere after announcement of new industry policy by Hooda Government, the economic growth of Gurgaon district is estimated to reach 10 to 15 per cent during the next five years as compared to national growth of eight to nine percent. The ending of textile quota regime, low interest rates, rapid technological changes, labour reforms were likely to boost productivity of industries further.

The export turnover from industrial units here was Rs 20,000 crore during the year 2006-07. The main export items include cars, motorcycles, software, readymade garments, sports goods and rice to mainly UK, Algeria, Hungary, Denmark, Netherlands, Columbia, Sri Lanka, Japan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Australia, Korea, South Africa, the US, Europe, Austria and Mexico.

Gurgaon has attracted foreign direct investment of Rs 5000 crore through HSIIDC, HUDA and Department of Industries for establishing industrial units in IMT Manesar, Udyog Vihar, Electronic City, Pace City and Industrial Development Colony Estate.

The new projects under implementation are Special Economic Zone, (SEZ) KMP expressway, Metro Rail link, Multi layer parking facility in HSIIDC, Vinjya Nikunj and setting up of Gems and Jewellery park.

The incoming units include Satyam Computers Service, I-Labs, Agilent Technologies, CSM Computers, WNS Global, Oracle in IT Sector and Yes Bank in Banking with BPO, Erricson, American Express, XL Insurance in BPO, Genpact, Bank of a merica and Accenture in Call-Centre service.

The construction of Qutub Minar-Gurgaon Metro Corridor at a cost of Rs 681 crore is in progress, which is likely to be completed by January 2010. Till now, an expenditure of Rs 154.77 crore had been incurred on the project.

The length of the Metro Rail Link is 7.08 km and it will have five stations namely Garden Estate, Sikenderpur, DT City Centre, Iffco Chowk and Sushant Lok. This would further improve connectivity between Delhi and Gurgaon.

UNI