Modi woos Tamil Nadu investors

CHENNAI - Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi wants Tamil Nadu’s enterprises to invest in his state but has said no to private professional colleges that rake in crores of rupees through capitation fees.

“In Gujarat education is run as a social service. Gujaratis living in other places are also doing the same. Education is not a business in Gujarat or for Gujaratis. For those wanting to set up an educational institution as a business proposition, it will be a problem,” Modi said to a question at an investors’ meeting here Saturday.

He was here to kick start a road show for “Vibrant Gujarat” - an investment promotion summit - to be held in Gandhinagar Jan 12-13, 2011.

A majority of engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu are in the private sector and charge capitation and other fees from students.

Modi said the state has set up an institute for training teachers and by 2015 one could see campus recruitment taking place there.

“We will be exporting teachers to other nations as there is a demand for good teachers worldwide,” he remarked.

When queried about the human resource development, he said: “One should map the human resources based on their inherent strength and potential. In order to enhance their skill sets, training institutes should be established near them so that they can get jobs.”

He said around 2,000 training institutes have been started in Gujarat till date.

Referring to the auctioning of gifts received by him, Modi said: “As a chief minister I get several articles as gifts which I have handed over to the government. Around 8,000 articles received by me were auctioned off to realise Rs.20 crore to be used of improving girl child education.”

Inviting the spinning mills in Tamil Nadu to expand their capacity by setting up new units in Gujarat, Modi said: “For the textiles industry we have a ‘five F’ policy - farm (cotton) to fibre (yarn) to fabric (cloth) to fashion (garments) to foreign (garment exports). Gujarat guarantees assured quality power for 24 hours a day.”

Earlier addressing businessmen, he said Gujarat was expanding its industrial infrastructure by promoting 13 special investment regions in addition to having around 60 special economic zones.

He invited them to invest in Gujarat with the offer of continuous supply of quality power, transparent governance and good infrastructure.