Reduce corruption, red tapism: industry members

CHENNAI:In January this year, Tamil Nadu electricity minister Arcot Veerasamy made astartling statement at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. He advised investors thatinstead of blindly narrowing their choice to the IT sector, they should considerputting their money in other areas -- even brick kilns! Perhaps he was aware ofthe ground reality, even though he was laughed at at the time. Arecent survey instituted by the ministry of commerce and industry and carriedout by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, ranked Chennaia dismal 15th among 17 cities in India for doing business. Industry circles inthe city do not agree with the ranking, especially since Chennai is home toalmost all the car majors in the world and IT companies and houses the backoffice of even the World Bank. But they do agree that a lot needs to be done onthe ground for the city to reach no. 1 position, such as doing away with redtapism and corruption. E-governance also would help the city win investors'confidence, they say."The state should establish a propersingle-window system, which should reduce the time taken to set up a businessand also reduce the processes involved. While an announcement regardingsingle-window system has already been made, it remains to be seen how it isgoing be implemented," K Purushothaman, regional director of Nasscom, told TheTimes of India. He said computerisation of the whole process ofsetting up a business would mean lesser hassles for those investing or startinga business here. "At the moment, CMDA and DTCP approvals take a long time. Forthe IT sector, we have an infrastructure tax, and we are the only state in thecountry to do so. Hyderabad effectively implements e-seva," headded."There is rampant corruption at all levels in the government.There is red-tapism. Government officials are not industry-friendly. They think,The investor is going to make millions, what do I get out of it? Why should Ihelp?'" said K Gopalakrishnan, general secretary, Tamil Nadu Small and TinyIndustries Association (TANSTIA) said.Gopalakrishnan says thereneeds to be a change of heart and political will to tackle this problem. "Evenfor building permits or property registration, all the concerned departmentslike the CMDA take a huge amount of time. There needs to be standardisation andsimplification of the number of procedures involved," he said.GopalSrinivasan of TVS Capital Funds says there needs to be de-densification of thecity and transportation problems needs to be sorted out. "But the state surelyneeds a larger vision for development like Hyderabad or Bangalore," hesaid.Gopalakrishnan also pointed out that all approvals should beprovided online. "Many developed countries prescribe a complete set ofparameters that businesses need to adhere to. These should be replicated hereand a time limit for processing applications should also be fixed, which willmake the government officials more time conscious."However, a seniorgovernment official rubbished the report. "If the report's rankings are true,how do we manage to attract 30-35,000 crore of investment per year? Also, thestate is highly computerised. Out of 558 registration offices, 450 arecompletely computerised. People can get e-stamping facility and otherregistration facilities across these offices," the official said.