Hope this is not the begining of the exodus.

Do we have any reason to prevent it? For example infrastructure developments in the area. Speak to any employee working in Baddi about living conditions at Baddi. They would never endorse the idea and they prefer Pinjore or Kalka or Chandigarh to live at. Take a cue from Greater Noida industrial belt. What was it at the beginning? Just a piece of waste land (non agricultural land). See it today it has best of townships ready and dozen more are lined up. Best of the companies, corporates, malls are moving into. In fact many reputed academic institutions have also opened up their facilities. Best of road to talk about - the expressway. Ya some issues like public transport, safety, etc are still there but are improving gradually. That is called an all round development of an area catering to social needs as well.

At Baddi we talk about performance in terms of production, revenue, big names and based on this we call it pharmaceutical hub of Asia. But what about the real economic growth?

Im not comparing Himachal to Noida but it present a case to reconsider our policies over and again before the job of many is lost. Human resources don't need just a job.

Human resources don’t need just a job but a job is much better than no job.
We need to look at the big picture and the government machinery should have forsight to overcome these stumbling block. Not much is lost yet... things could be salvaged from here.

I feel we still need them to stay here for 3 very simple reasons.

1. To build the economy of the state
2. To provide employment for the educated unemployed youths in the state
3. To encourage others to join and model townships of Noida & Gurgaon

- I am not an expert on the economy and politics of the state but I feel the state machinery lacks clear vision more than money.

And by the way when is the Tax Holiday coming to end.

The tax holiday ends in March 2010

No wonder Lenova is packing up. The question is how many more.

Spot on Abhishek!! Living conditions apart Baddi has become a notorious hub for criminals and even the police do not venture out alone at nights. Trust me, this is what a constable posted there told me once.

The more we talk about infrastructure and living conditions and facilities, the more I am convinced that we need 'outsiders' to teach us how to create decent living conditions. I know I am opening a pandora box by this statement but this is simply not in our blood. Be it our leaders or the babus, both are visionless. I recently traveled to Delhi in a roadways bus and saw the miserable conditions of the 'scheduled' HRTC bus stops in Sanwara in Himachal Pradesh. Those shack dhabas are still the same from my student days back in the early 90s. Why is to so hard for our policy makers to offer a decent stopover for the passengers. See what Haryana has done. Anyways, will cover this in a separate post.

I am more and more getting convinced that we Himachalis lack a vision for creating ideal living conditions. We were blessed as the nature took care of this aspect and we have failed when it came to create something ourselves. Take the example of toy train. We still are content with the early 20th century railway system which Britishers left with us. We did not add a single inch to this track!!