PHD Chamber Present a wish list to LG for making Delhi a knowledge and cultural hub

The PHD Chamber is organizing an interface with the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Mr Tejendra Khanna to present a wish list to make Delhi a knowledge and cultural hub, on 12th October 2007 in New Delhi.

Billed as the first institutional attempt to strike a strong synergy between private and public sector in promoting futuristic industry in Delhi region, the meeting would bring together business men, representatives of civil society, knowledge industry, tourism and people who have made deep impact on the cultural landscape of the capital.

“Paradigm shift is taking place in the business milieu of the capital. Focus is changing from a trade and manufacturing centric dispensation to a knowledge driven regime. Equally significant is the effort done both at the private and public fora to project Delhi as a rich cultural hub that can transform the city as a powerful destination for business and leisure. Our effort is to galvanize Delhi’s advantages, prioritize development agenda, identify challenges and problems to evolve an ideal matrix for private public partnership,” says Mr Sanjay Bhatia, President, PHD Chamber.

PHD Chamber’s initiative to evolve a strategy for positioning Delhi amongst the top global business and tourist destinations should be seen against the backdrop of huge investment that are being made to tone up the physical infrastructure of the city for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games. String of hotels, expressways, flyovers, convention centers, malls etc are being built with state-of-the-art landscaping to beautify the city, entailing huge expenditure both by the Government and the private sector. These capital assets have to be put to the optimal use after the Commonwealth Games in 2010. That is possible only if Delhi becomes a destination that can combine business with leisure.

According to the Chamber, there are encouraging signs of Delhi becoming a global city. The National Capital Region (NCR) that includes NOIDA and Gurgaon has already emerged as the second largest IT hub in the country, second only to Bangalore. On an average, at least 10 new Greenfield investments are taking place in NCR every month in the knowledge sector, which is likely to go up in the coming years. Bio-tech and R&D are the new buzzwords for investors. Animation and printing industry are booming, riding on the back of increased outsourcing from other countries. Medi city concept is fast catching up and in the next five years at least three such ventures having globally competitive medical facilities will spring up in the NCR. “To cope up with the development imperatives and to give a proactive direction to such efforts, there should be constant dialogue between partners in progress. That is what we are attempting to provide-a multi-disciplinary dialogue on sustainable development of Delhi to make it vibrant, clean and green,” says Mr Bhatia.

On tourism front, the Chamber has a proactive agenda- to convert the challenges into potential. Promoting water sports by cleaning up the dirty and polluted water bodies spread around the city, toning up the landscaping, introducing modern transport management systems etc are some of them.