Kerala to provide online industry registration

R Sreekumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: To give a further fillip to the on-going e-governance

initiatives the Industries Department is going to provide online registration

facility for new small scale industrial units (SSIs) in Kerala from next month.

Kerala’s Industry and IT Minister P K Kunhalikutty, said that the online

system would expedite the process of registration of SSI's in the state. The

government's objective is to promote more SSI's which have the potential for

growth in Kerala. Meanwhile, Kerala Bureau of Industrial Promotion (K-BIP) has

brought out a CD-ROM with a compilation of over 525 government orders pertaining

to industry issued over the past twenty five years.

The content has been arranged under various titles such as SSI registration,

industrial policy clearances, prime Minister's Rozgar Yojana, Control Orders,

Power Incentives, Rural Artisan's Program, Store Purchase Orders, Margin Money

Loan, State Investment Subsidy, Sales Tax Exemption, Women's industries

programs, harijan development scheme, infrastructure, handicrafts and

co-operation, sick unit revival program, delegation of powers, information

technology and miscellaneous items. The CD also has the entire text and

documents related to the recently announced labor, industry and IT policies of

the Kerala Government.

The CD will prove beneficial for investors, entrepreneurs, chartered

accountants, industrial and management consultancies as a good. Even government

officials will benefit from this compilation. `Compiling the government orders

released over a quarter century was a tedious process,' a K-BIP official said.

The CD will be available for sale soon, however, the price is yet to be fixed,

he added. Kunhalikutty officially released the CD-ROM by handing over the first

edition to John K Mathews, President of Kerala State Small Industries

Association (KSSIA). Public sector Keltron and leading multimedia company Invis

Multimedia Pvt. Ltd. were also involved in the production of the compilation,

the first of its kind in the state, K-BIP officials said.

K-BIP , an autonomous wing under the industries department is also

responsible for maintaining the industry website, Keralaindustry.org that is

updated weekly. It has a `queries' section for answering questions raise by

investors and public. "On an average we receive about 30 to 40 queries

weekly on the site," officials said. K-BIP is also actively promoting food

processing, bamboo and biotechnology industry in the state, they added.