Punjab, a spot of opportunities

Punjab, the land of five rivers, stretches towards the north western part of India, sharing domestic boundaries with Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, and an international boundary with Pakistan. Sleeping on the lap of Shiwalik Hills, Punjab is sumptuous with fertile alluvial plain having an extensive and well developed irrigation system. Unlike many other states in India, Punjab is bestowed with very less forest cover. Nevertheless, with the proper water availability system available, the people of the state could make use of the facilities and policy advantages offered by Green Revolution.

The timely inception of Green Revolution after the third Five Year Plan, served as a boon to the farmers of Punjab, than anyone else. With vast area of agricultural fields and the benefits of the inputs for their farming worked well for those rich farmers. The favourable government policies blended with climatic advantage for the respective crops helped them in reaping their fortune. These efforts made the state to be known by the name, “Granary of India” or “India’s bread basket”.

This atmosphere gave impetus to the multiplication of a multitude of suitcase farmers. Later, when the family system started evolving from joint to nuclear style, the traditional model of business gave way to modern professional business organizations. This gave rise to the need of more and more infrastructure to support the business climate, thereby housing new towns, cities and urban agglomerations.

This situation has dumped a lot of money into the deep pockets of many. Gradually, for parking the rich funds in some safe haven, taking the business opportunity into consideration, many started trying their luck in real estate sector. Foreseeing the growth of companies, who are going to have a huge physical presence, businessmen comprehended the wide range of possibilities associated with real estate, both in commercial and residential field.

The opening up of Indian economy by the last decade of last millennium, the prevailing economic scenario has foregrounded Punjab into the mainstream of global business. The intrinsic strength of Punjab to entice more private investment made it a land of unending fortunes.

Though, basically, Punjab is an agrarian economy, it does have small sized industrial units. This has slowly given way to the setting up of larger companies, which look forward to extract the opportunity coming along the resource rich scenario. 

Moreover, with highest per capita generation of electricity in India, which is 2.5 times the national average, all major cities in Punjab get benefitted by this and have some of the highest tariffs in India. This has played as a major motivating factor for many to set up industries or other business firms in Punjab. Along with that, with relatively good infrastructure, having extensive road, rail, air and river transport system, it was ideal to tap the chance of getting closer to business environment.

Some of the key business and commercial centres in Punjab include Chandigarh- Mohali, Ludhiana- Jalandhar, Ludhiana- Amritsar, Punjab Apparel Park, Pushpa Gujral Science City etc. Here, Chandigarh is the capital city, with Mohali as its twin township. Mohali is renowned as a hub for Information technology, Information Technology Enabled Services, electronics and pharmaceutical industries etc. These days, Mohali boasts of having a strong grip in real estate sector too. 

Since the number of small families is in increasing fashion, the number of housing complexes too is going up. Taking this situation into mind, real estate companies are coming up with many new projects, both commercial and residential. This speaks high on the vital part, a surrounding can play for setting up any new enterprise. 

Punjab sets a very good example of how a simple agrarian economy gets transformed into a highly modernised stage, inviting more and more investment, for keeping up the standard of living. It is not only the external atmosphere, but progressive and open mentality of the people in Punjab that provided the befitting setting for the germination, growth and blooming of business outline in the state.