At a time when the Kerala government is locked in a heated policy debate over dropping the promotion of manufacturing industries altogether, Videocon Industries has stepped in to dangle a handsome investment proposal. The consumer electronics conglomerate has readied a plan to pour in R200 crore on the setting up of an electronic goods manufacturing centre in the state.
This follows the Netherlands-based Philips outsourcing the manufacturing, distribution and sales of its television businesss in India to Videocon from last year. The Dutch stimulus in its manufacturing pipeline has propelled Videocon to pan out its production base to South. Kerala is one of the fastest growing white goods markets in the country with its urban monthly household consumer expenditure topping other states, according to an NSSE data.
?The company is considering setting up a facility that can feed the market from central Kerala,? Videocon Industries MD Pradeep Kumar Dhoot told FE. This new unit is likely to generate about 2,000 jobs. Kerala has been debating whether it is pragmatic to promote manufacturing industry that uses up space and often pollutes habitats. ?Considering high population and low industrial land available in the state, it would be a better bet if the government doesn?t court environment pollution allegations and land issues,? says addition chief secretary T Balakrishnan.
However, the state industry minister PK Kunjhali Kutty is overjoyed by the unanticipated investor. ?I read Videocon’s timely entry as auspicious start to the state’s brandnew investment promotion road show ‘Emerging Kerala’. This spontaneous investment will set a successful tone to the promotion exercise from the very beginning,? he said.
Videocon?s facility is likely to be in Kochi and the state industry department is trying to identify land for the venture.
Even as the Centre has advised more focus on manufacturing industries for higher turnover, industry planning experts had been advising Kerala to fight shy of bulk consignments as in manufacturing. One culprit is the state?s practice of Nokkukooli, whereby trade unions of political parties demand fees for letting others load and unload goods, without sharing the work. Even after providing legal teeth, Kerala had been unable to shake off Nokkukooli fully.
Meanwhile, it seems that the union stranglehold is likely to ease with the setting up of a call centre to address Nokkukooli rows. ?The helpline is not going to be an overnight panacea. It could help to slowly phase out a labour practice that all political parties now want to get rid of,? says state labour minister Shibu Baby John.
At the same time, the entry of the TV electronics giant has set the state?s outburst of manufacturing sector promotion debate into a happy mute-mode, at least for now.