Govt-industry keen on progress on affirmative action

New Delhi, Jul 13 (UNI) The government has told industry represenatives that a Committee headed by Mr Ajay Shankar, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), would look into various suggestions made by them relating to affirmative action and the problems they face in implementation of these programmes.

Principal Secretary to Prime Minister T K Nair recently took a meeting with the apex chambers to ascertain the progress made in this regard and went into the suggestions for promoting affirmative action.

Among those who attended the meeting included representatives of Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry(ASSOCHAM), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The topic, which cropped up at the meeting, included assessment of initiatives and actions taken by industry associations, evolving a scheme for development of industry in the districts with substantial population of SC/ST people and submission of the report by the Coordination Committee.

The government had earlier told industry associations that the actions taken by them were not commensurate as per the recommendations of the Interim Report and assurances given by them.

The Chambers, therefore, submitted a progress report till date on commitments made by them.

FICCI had submitted a note on a 'Scheme to promote industrialisation in district with significant SC/ST population.' The Federation was of the view that giving the same incentives as available to select hill States like tax sops under Income Tax Act 1961, availability of funds at lower cost , capital investment subsidy as well as transport subsidy to districts with more than 40 per cent population of these groups may bring employment to a large number of disadvantaged groups.

The Federation representatives again took up the issues at the meeting and they were told that the Committee headed by Mr Shankar would look into their suggestion.

The government stressed the need for concrete action on implementation at the earliest.

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