JAIPUR, February 8: Rajasthan's desert palaces and camel caravans are great draws for tourists, but for industry in the state regular power supplies and gushing oil wells are hot priorities."We are inviting foreign investments in gas and petroleum exploration, the power sector and in areas where we need technical know-how," chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat said.
Rajasthan has thrived on tourism, with some 600,000 tourists making the trek annually to one of the country's most exotic states.
State officials reckon one out of every three foreign tourists that come to India visit Rajasthan.
"We are exposing the rich culture and history of Rajasthan to the entire world," the 75-year-old Shekhawat said from the state capital Jaipur, known as "Pink City" for the rosy hue of its buildings.
The monied elite opt for the opulence of the famed Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur, and other hotels converted from grand homes of the Rajputs -- the warrior aristocrats who once ruled this corner ofIndia.
Meanwhile, New Age travellers, possibly descendants of the hippies who flocked to India from the West in the last few decades, will seek out earthy, ethnic attractions like the annual winter camel fair at Pushkar.
"We are developing it as an industry giving it financial assistance. In a few years Rajasthan will be a state where tourism will be its main industry," Shekhawat said. Although they may be better off than many other Indians, most of the 45 million Rajasthanis still cannot read -- the state has a literacy rate of 38.6 per cent.
And, while the lights do not often go out for ordinary folk, local industry regularly suffers from power shortages.
"We are making reforms in the power sector to attract foreign investments," Shekhawat said.
"Once this problem is solved Rajasthan will be heaven for Indian and other investments in technical areas, he said.
The state has recently announced numerous incentives for new industries, especially in the infrastructure sector.
"We are keen to inviteforeign companies to share their superior technical expertise," Shekhawat said.
Shell, Mico Bosch and India's RPG Group are among the big companies which have already invested here.
But this 75-year-old senior leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), draws a line at foreign investment and goods coming into the country wherever it threatens the well-being of local firms.
"We will not allow investment in areas where local industry will be killed and foreign companies can freely sell their products in India," Shekhawat said.
"The point is not about foreign collaboration," he said."The issue is that we should use indigenous goods for our local markets.
"Foreign companies are selling cheaper goods because of import relaxation. Our industries are not able to compete with them."
It is standard saffron flavoured fare of "swadeshi" -- the BJP's brand of economic nationalism.
The BJP is ruling Rajasthan for a second term and hoping to win power in New Delhi in forthcoming elections,which start later this month and finish on March 7. It espouses a philosophy of "Hindutva" -- which literally means Hindu-ness.
At the last National election in 1996 the party won 12 seats out of the 25 Rajasthan accounts for in India's Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.Its arch rival, the secularist National Congress party, won 12 that time also and will be banking on any local dissatisfaction with the BJP at state level to tilt the balance in its favour.
The Hindu nationalist party's tough stance towards foreign investment in the consumer sector has struck a chord with Indian industry, grappling to fight off foreign competition.
But the state government has realised that even if the welcome for foreign businessmen is qualified, it needs to simplify the entry for those it wants to stay.
Rajasthan has opened a Bureau of Industrial Promotion (BIP) which provides one-stop services to entrepreneurs right from conception of an idea to its implementation.
The BIP is also the state government'snodal agency for attracting foreign direct investment and non-resident investments.y
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
