Interacting with captains of industry at a session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) here yesterday, Badal urged industrialists to modernise and upgrade their units if they wanted to survive and compete in the global market.

He said procedural delays were the main factor which hampered speedy implementation of various projects and stressed the need to evolve a system in which all necessary clearances from different government departments were granted in a time-bound manner. The opening of a single-window system at Chandigarh this week was a step towards this direction.

Principal secretary to the Chief Minister, Ramesh Inder Singh, who is also the secretary, industries, said the government had set in motion a process to bring about reforms in PSUs and it had been decided in principle not to make more investment in PSUs. "These units will have to fend for themselves and those economically unviable will have to wind up."

He invited the private sector to participate in the revival of certain units which were relevant to the needs of the local industry.

Initiating the discussion, Kamal Oswal, member of the CII regional council, said there was an urgent need to add value to whatever is produced in Punjab and attract fresh investment both from within and outside the state.

Oswal said it was imperative to shorten the procedure, bring transparency in government business relating to industries and initiate the process to review the working of central public sector undertakings.

Sunil Kant Munjal, past chairman of the CII Punjab state council, said that initiatives and policies relating to the national economy must converge into a single objective: the revival of economic growth to 7 per cent GDP per annum.

Among others, S.P.Oswal, Sanjeev Arora, Dinesh Oswal, Amarjeet Goyal and Rajinder Gupta also participated in the discussion. Punjab Minister of State for Industries Sucha Singh Langah and Deputy Commissioner Arun Goyal were present on the occasion.

Earlier, presiding over a seminar organised by the Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings, Badal said the small-scale sector had lagged behind during the past 50 years due to defective planning and anti-industry policies of successive governments. Infrastructure development, he said, was a priority with the present government.