India Industrial Land Bank (IILB), a GIS-enabled industrial land bank, serves as a one-stop solution for prospective investors and industrialists looking to know more about industry related infrastructure and setting up their industrial bases in India.

Over 3,500 industrial parks are available on this platform and investors can navigate integral information relating to logistics, land, rail, and air connectivity, drainage systems, power supplies, and even the availability of raw materials (farm and industrial) to make well-informed choices of the selected industrial belt. This interactive platform proves to be time-saving as access to information gets easier and data intelligence reduces any risks for prospective investors.  This initiative aligns with the government's vision to promote industry growth and transform India into a major industrial nation.

To ensure that the information gets updated on a real-time basis, the system has been integrated with industry-based GIS systems of 34 States and UTs. To further strengthen the platform, industrial parks of Central Ministries/ Departments are also being integrated onto the IILB platform.

In ministries/departments, initiatives such as Project Development Cells (PDC) have been established to create a shelf of readily investible projects. PDCs will assist investors and strive to improve the Ease of Doing Business to stimulate sectoral and economic growth. Around 15,000 unessential compliances have been reduced to ensure citizens' ease of living and ease of doing business by rationalising, eliminating, and automating processes.

The Industrial Park Rating System (IPRS), launched in 2018, is an extension of the IILB portal aimed to facilitate users (policymakers, investors, and financing institution) in evaluating an industrial park's competitiveness against globally set benchmarks across four dimensions: internal infrastructure and utilities, external infrastructure and connectivity, business services and facilities, and environment and safety management. Under each of the four dimensions, IPRS makes inquiries across 34 parameters finalized by DPIIT and other stakeholders. Out of the 250 nominated parks in the initial inquiry phase, 177 parks were evaluated under the said pillars and parameters. Overall, the IPRS initiative supports industrial infrastructure competitiveness and supports policy development to enable industrialization across the country.

With the aim to foster competitiveness and sustainability in industrial infrastructure frontiers, DPIIT introduced ‘IPRS 2.0’ to make an inclusive and robust framework and guidelines. IPRS 2.0 encompasses global frameworks such as International Guidelines for Industrial Parks (IGIP) constructed by UNIDO, and Eco-Industrial Park (EIP) framework developed by UNIDO, World Bank, and GIZ. A robust and consultative approach adopted under the 2.0 version, focuses on widening the coverage of IPRS across all the States/ UTs/ Central departments and ministries along with deeper qualitative evaluation assessment, user feedback and technological intervention to promote IPRS.

Under IPRS 2.0, pan- India coverage of nominations for 478 parks and SEZs were received by 31 participating States and UTs, including 51 private parks and SEZs. Based on data availability, 365 parks were assessed, with 41 industrial parks and 13 SEZs leading, 90 industrial parks and 17 SEZs as challengers, and 185 industrial parks and 19 SEZs being aspirers. About 55 per cent of the parks and zones nominated for rating were either from Western or Southern regions, with 73 per cent of nominated parks being for mixed end-use. 

Improved rating results indicate that India’s efforts in ease of doing business and cost of doing business have yielded higher returns. As part of the IPRS 2.0 activity, capacity-building workshops are being conducted to highlight the best practices across industrial parks in the States/ UTs and address key gaps with possible solutions. 

As States move towards continuously improving their industrial infrastructure, the objective of the initiative is to provide a roadmap to States/ UTs to improve industrial parks by offering best-in-class facilities to investors and enhancing the investment ecosystem of the State/ UT. This places more focus on issues related to productivity, sustainability, resilience, ease of doing business, and cost of doing business. The National Single Window System, in conjunction with the India Industrial Land Bank portal, will significantly increase the investment potential in large parts of the country that have previously been underserved due to inadequate information. It is also the government's attempt to ensure that investments are spread across the country rather than just being concentrated in a few regions.

Inputs by IILB and IPRS Team. 

This blog has been authored by Ishita Sirsikar and Priyanka Tina Cardoz.