ADB BRIEFS

NO. 127
FEBRUARY 2020

KEY POINTS
The Industrial Park Rating System
in India
• The Department for Promotion
of Industries and Internal Trade
(DPIIT), Government of India,
has developed an Industrial
Information System (IIS) that
maps 3,373 industrial areas
Sabyasachi Mitra Kavita Iyengar
across the nation covering
475,000 hectares (ha).
Asian Development Bank Asian Development Bank

• The industrial parks across Mohamed Athar Nikhil Gupta

states are largely owned, Consultant Consultant
managed, and operated by
the respective State Industrial
Atul Sanganeria Nirav Vidwans
Development Corporations
(SIDCs).
Consultant Consultant

• The Asian Development

Bank (ADB) has supported
the DPIIT in developing an
Industrial Park Rating System
(IPRS), a framework-based
performance evaluation system OBJECTIVE
for industrial parks.
The Industrial Park Rating System (IPRS) was developed in India the user to
• The pilot IPRS that was evaluate the competitiveness of an industrial park against global benchmarks along
launched in November 2018
four dimensions—internal infrastructure and utilities, external infrastructure and
evaluated 177 parks, nominated
by 21 SIDCs across 34 key
connectivity, business services and facilities, and environment and safety management.
parameters under 4 verticals of It was hoped that assessment under the IPRS could assist informed decision-making
the framework. by stakeholders involved in India’s industrial development including policy-makers,
investors, and financing institutions.
• Based on the success of the
pilot, the DPIIT intends to
transform the IPRS into an
annual exercise with wider KEY OUTCOMES
coverage and better qualitative
assessment along with greater During the pilot, while better access to internal and external infrastructure was reported
user feedback and perspective.
in most of the 177 industrial parks evaluated, major gaps were flagged in sustainability
solutions, environment and safety management measures, and access to quality
services.

* ADB supported DPIIT in the preparation of the IPRS report. The report was released by The Union
Minister for Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation in November 2018. Prior to this, in May 2017, DPIIT
launched the Industrial Information System (IIS), a GIS-enabled database of industrial areas and clusters
across the country to optimize resource utilization and enhance the efficiency of the manufacturing
sector. The portal serves as a one-stop solution to the free and easy accessibility of all industrial
information including availability of raw material (agriculture, horticulture, minerals, natural resources),
ISBN 978-92-9262-024-0 (print) distance from key logistic nodes, layers of terrain, and urban infrastructure.
ISBN 978-92-9262-025-7 (electronic)
ISSN 2071-7202 (print)
ISSN 2218-2675 (electronic)
Publication Stock No. BRF200044-2
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22617/BRF200044-2
ADB BRIEFS NO. 127

INDUSTRIAL INFORMATION SYSTEM
Keeping in view the importance of industrial development in
driving India closer to its objective of becoming a $5 trillion
economy by 2025, the government initiated several programs
such as, Make in India, Start-up India, and improving the business
climate in states through the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP).
To achieve the target of 25% share of manufacturing in gross
domestic product (GDP) by 2022, the government plans to
invest into improving industrial infrastructure and its service
delivery, provide policy and fiscal support to industry, and bring
in transparency in information dissemination. In this context, the
Government of India’s Department for Promotion of Industries
and Internal Trade (DPIIT) developed the Industrial Information
System (IIS) with participation of states, union territories, central
departments, and ministries through extensive data sharing over
a geographic information system (GIS) platform. The objective of
the IIS is to consolidate information about the industrial landscape
of India and make it available in a transparent way.
Industrial infrastructure in India are dispersed across a variety of
ecosystems including special economic zones (SEZs), free trade
and warehousing zones, and export processing zones, as well as
integrated ecosystem concepts like the integrated manufacturing
cluster (IMC), special investment region (SIR), industrial corridor
nodes, petroleum chemicals and petrochemicals investment region
(PCIPR), and coastal employment unit (CEU). While the economic
and governance models across these ecosystems vary, state-
sponsored industrial parks in India have traditionally been managed
by the State Industrial Development Corporation (SIDC) under
each state government. In the recent past though, models have
begun to evolve along cluster- and ecosystem-based approaches
to ensure resource efficiency, mitigation of demand risk, financial
support in creation of infrastructure, technological intervention, etc.
At the regional level, multiple industrial areas work as clusters
forming economic centers that generate value addition,
employment, and investment. ADB has supported the DPIIT
through a framework for increasing cluster-level competitiveness
for industrial development (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Enablers of Manufacturing Competitiveness

Economic Enablers

Demand Factor
conditions conditions

Investors Manufacturing Government

Competitiveness

Well-developed
Context for
institutional
firm strategy
support

Administrative Enablers

Enable policy Innovation- and

Focus on Agile and industry-
and investor sustainability-
productivity responsive
decision-making focused

Source: ADB study team.

2
 The Industrial Park Rating System in India

Figure 2: The Industrial Information System Dashboard

No. of Industrial Clusters Mapped No. of States and/or Union Territories Mapped Total Area Mapped (ha) Total Industrial Land Area Available
3,375 31 475,173.74 121,538.03

40,000

35,000
Total Industrial Land Available (ha)

30,000

25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5000

0
Tamil Nadu

Karnataka
Gujarat

Maharashtra

Rajasthan

Andhra Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh

Haryana

Jharkhand
Odisha

ha = hectare.
Source: National Centre of Geo-Informatics. 2017. Industrial Information System. https://iis.ncog.gov.in/admin/mainDashboardIPRSUrl.

“Access to Information” is identified by the BRAP 2017 as the DEVELOPING THE INDUSTRIAL PARK
primary enabler of informed and solutions-oriented decision-
making in policy and infrastructure by stakeholders in industrial RATING SYSTEM
development including governments, financing institutions,
investors, and developers. The IIS provides key institutional To leverage this huge repository of information, ADB along with
support to the information dissemination systems in industrial its knowledge partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers, conceptualized
infrastructure developed by various states under the BRAP. It acts the IPRS that could be integrated with the IIS. Developed as a pilot
as a one-stop shop and a solutions center for location suitability system in 2018, the IPRS aimed to:
assessment across various sectors, identification of key support • provide information to tenants and compare parks on identified
required by various industrial areas, and designing of schemes and parameters;
programs around industrial development. • propose a framework by which competitiveness of industrial
parks could be measured and areas of intervention identified
The system is a repository of information on 3,373 industrial areas (Figure 3);
(parks, clusters, estates, SEZs, and growth nodes) covering about • rate industrial parks to recognize best practices and promote a
475,000 hectares (ha) of land mapped on the GIS platform competitive spirit among park developers and operators; and
(Figure 2). • seek feedback from stakeholders (including developers and
tenants) to identify gaps in existing infrastructure and ecosystem
to enable the DPIIT, ADB, and other departments and agencies
to develop relevant programs and policies.

3
ADB BRIEFS NO. 127

Figure 3: Framework for Assessing Competitiveness of Industrial Parks and Identifying Areas of Intervention
Conceptualizing the framework

Industries and investors 1 2 3 4

Internal External Business support Environment

DPIIT and knowledge
infrastructure infrastructure services and safety
partners
and utilities and connectivity management

State government
interactions

Methodology

Development of the IPRS Nomination of Responses filled Assessment of responses

integrated under the IIS 202 parks by by 202 parks on and key findings for
web portal 21 participating states the IPRS portal the pilot IPRS report

DPIIT = Department for Promotion of Industries and Internal Trade, IIS = Industrial Information System, IPRS = Industrial Park Rating System.
Sources: Asian Development Bank; Government of India, Department for Promotion of Industries and Internal Trade; and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The IPRS could support central and state governments to develop
strategies for future industrialization and better capacity utilization,
help lenders review the preparedness of proposed industrial
projects, and discover infrastructure issues within and external to
the industrial zone or park.
The second condition was relaxed pursuant to representations by
various states during consultative interactions. The methodology
adopted for the IPRS was consultative and participatory in nature
for early onboarding of concerned stakeholders in the development
of the system.

Select industrial parks nominated by the relevant state and central
development agencies were assessed during the pilot in 2018. It was
assumed (and reasonably so) that SIDCs and concerned central
departments and ministries would likely nominate those parks that
they considered the best performing.
The IPRS pilot rating framework was conceptualized to be standing
on four pillars of the industrial ecosystem—internal infrastructure
and utilities, external infrastructure and connectivity, business
support services, and environment and safety management.
These pillars were assessed across 34 parameters finalized in
discussion with the DPIIT and various state government agencies
such as SIDCs, and departments of industry. These 34 areas
of inquiry were supported by 27 additional or supplementary
questions totaling to 61 questions. The supplementary questions
were used to gain insight into the degree of readiness and level of
service offered and provided by the park developer or operator
(the supplementary questions were not used for rating the parks
and/or zones).
Nominations under the IPRS were sought based on two key
parameters: the nominated parks need to (i) have minimum 25%
occupancy and (ii) be at least 250 acres (about 100 ha) in size.
Under the pilot phase of the IPRS, the system received 202
nominations out of which 177 were evaluated (balance parks were
not evaluated because of data insufficiency) (Figure 4).
This pilot rating system was formally launched through a workshop
on 19 November 2018 by the Union Minister for Industries and
Commerce, Government of India. It was announced during the
event that the IPRS aims to emerge as an annual rating exercise
that would support in continuous evaluation and assessment
of industrial infrastructure in India. It would showcase the best
practices adopted across the country by various development
corporations and industrial infrastructure owners and/or
developers. It was also announced during the event that the IPRS
would widen the scope of coverage and bring in further qualitative
assessment along with greater industrial infrastructure user
feedback and perspective.
The IPRS received a response rate of 84% from the 21 participating
states with more than 130 parks (greater than 75%) responding
to over 95% of the questions under the framework. This is an
indication of the acceptability of the IPRS framework and the
overall initiative (Figure 5).

4
 The Industrial Park Rating System in India

Figure 4: Key Features of the Industrial Park Rating System Pilot 2018

• 177 industrial parks across 21 states • Overall response rate of more than
• Parks occupy more than 75,000 84%
hectares • 75% of industrial parks with
Re response rate of above 95%
e sp
ag • Responses accompanied with

on
r
supporting documents

Cove

s er
ate
Industrial Park Rating
System (IPRS)
• Formulation of
questionnaires • Internal infrastructure and utilities
• 34 primary and • External infrastructure
27 supplementary questions and connectivity
Me t

• Knowledge exchange • Business support services

ho

via video conferences ol • Environment and safety

s
og Ar
d

ea
and state visits y management
• Response via the online
IPRS portal

Sources: Asian Development Bank; Government of India, Department for Promotion of Industries and Internal Trade; and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Figure 5: Response to the Industrial Park Rating System Pilot 2018

75% 76% 76% 100%

177
100%
6%
16% 13%
22%
related to internal and external infrastructure.

24%
Response rate was above 85% for questions

133 135 135

75% parks responded to more than 95%
The overall response rate was 84%.

100% parks responded to more

than 25% of the questionnaire.

94%
of the questionnaire.

84% 87%
76% 78%

Above Above Above Above

Total Internal External Business Environment 95% 75% 50% 25%
Infrastructure Infrastructure Services and Safety
Percentage of questions in the questionnaire responded to
  Park% that responded Note: The data label in blue on top of each bar represents the number
  Park% that did not respond of parks that responded to the corresponding percentage of questions
in the questionnaire.
Sources: Asian Development Bank; Government of India, Department for Promotion of Industries and Internal Trade; and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

5
ADB BRIEFS NO. 127

FINDINGS OF THE INDUSTRIAL PARK Figure 7: Number of Parks with Availability of External
RATING SYSTEM PILOT 2018 Infrastructure and Connectivity
177
In the assessment under the IPRS, it was found that the 177 parks 152
evaluated met the requirements for the first two pillars—internal
and external infrastructure. But significant improvements were 121
required for the other two pillars—business facilitation and
environment and safety management. Provision of sustainability- 40% 67
centric features was found to be poor across all four pillars. 44

Stakeholder consultations revealed several reasons for this pattern

in assessment. These include: (i) poor utilization of facilities in the
Industrial Power Bus stop near Logistic Solid waste
parks; (ii) installation and provision of multiple facilities leading to parks sub-station park terminal in disposal in
escalation of lease rent and operations and maintenance costs; and analyzed vicinity vicinity
(iii) suboptimal demand (especially in multiproduct industrial zones) Parameters
for facilities such as, common effluent treatment plants, which can
only be provided if a certain minimum scale of demand exists. The assessment findings show that critical external infrastructure facilities
were available in most parks, e.g., 86% had a power substation within the park
premises.
Pillar 1: Internal Infrastructure and Utilities Sources: Asian Development Bank; Government of India, Department for
Promotion of Industries and Internal Trade; and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
There is a need for common sewage and effluent treatment plants,
otherwise tenants would incur huge costs in setting up their
individual treatment facilities. Ideally, such facilities should be
introduced at the cluster level so that the individual park or zone Pillar 3: Business Services and Facilities
does not need to invest in such capital intensive services and the
A direct correlation between the size of the park and availability
scale of demand does not pose a problem (Figure 6).
of business support services was observed. Over 60% of the
nominated industrial parks provided single window and online
land allotment services as a part of the BRAP reform actions. Most
Figure 6: Number of Parks with Availability of of the parks did not provide dormitories for their workers or the
Internal Infrastructure and Utilities floating population (truck drivers, temporary labor, etc.) (Figure 8).
Therefore, facilities under the third pillar were found to be geared
177 to serve the users or the enterprises rather than their workers,
helpers, and vendors.
136 140
122

59
40% Figure 8: Number of Parks with Availability of
27
Business Services and Facilities
24
177

Industrial Piped Operational Un- Water Sewage Common

parks water street interrupted treatment treatment effluent 104 108
analyzed supply lighting power plant plant treatment
supply 30%
48 41
The assessment findings show that critical internal infrastructure facilities 23
were available in most parks, e.g., 79% had uninterrupted power supply.
Sources: Asian Development Bank; Government of India, Department for Industrial Online land Single Dormitories Truck Skill
Promotion of Industries and Internal Trade; and PricewaterhouseCoopers. parks allotment window parking development
analyzed services zone center in
vicinity
Pillar 2: External Infrastructure and Connectivity
The assessment findings show that business services and facilities were poor
It was observed that while most of the nominated parks were close in many parks, e.g., 40% did not have single window services.
to a major city, an airport, or a railhead, 60% did not have a logistics Sources: Asian Development Bank; Government of India, Department for
facility in the vicinity. Workforce in over 68% parks had access to Promotion of Industries and Internal Trade; and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
public transport, that is, there was bus stop near the park. In over
three-quarters of the nominated parks, however, there was no solid
waste disposal facility available in the vicinity. (Figure 7).
6
 The Industrial Park Rating System in India

Pillar 4: Environment and Safety Management CONCLUSION AND WAY FORWARD

It was observed that not even 50% of the nominated parks
complied with any of the environment and safety management
features. There was poor emphasis on pollution control measures
across the parks and less than 16% of the parks have disaster
management protocol in place as a part of safety management
system. Furthermore only 45% parks had firefighting infrastructure
and only 27% had healthcare facility within the park (Figure 9).
Based on the findings of the pilot, the DPIIT aims to transform
the IPRS into an annual exercise covering larger number of parks
across India. The DPIIT intends to implement the IPRS based on
an advanced framework which includes a qualitative perspective as
well as user feedback-based assessment. The IPRS 2020 shall help
in identifying key gaps in industrial infrastructure across India and
in making better schemes and programs toward this purpose.

Figure 9: Number of Parks with Environment and The IPRS 2020 envisages fulfillment of the following objectives:
Safety Management Measures • Provide information to tenants and compare parks based on
identified parameters.
• Include in the rating framework, qualitative assessment of
industrial parks’ competitiveness and clear ways to identify areas
of intervention.
-55% -84% -88% -73% • Recognize best practices and promote competitive spirit among
177 park developers and operators.
• Seek constructive feedback from park users so that SIDCs and
park developers can identify priority interventions.
79 • Identify gaps in the industrial infrastructure that may be
48 addressed for the development of the overall industrial
28 21 ecosystem of the zone and/or region in the state.
• Benchmark the performance of industrial infrastructure across
the country.
Industrial Fire fighting Disaster Air quality Healthcare
parks system management monitoring facilities
• Develop a framework for improvement of public–private
analyzed protocols system partnership investment in industrial infrastructure.
• Support central and state governments in bringing policy-based
The assessment findings show that environment and safety management
interventions for industrial infrastructure development in the
systems were lacking in most parks, e.g., only 12% had an air quality country.
monitoring system.
Sources: Asian Development Bank; Government of India, Department for
Promotion of Industries and Internal Trade; and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Best Performers
The best performers across the 177 nominated parks are listed in
the Table.

Table: Best Performers in the Industrial Park Rating System Pilot 2018 by Pillar
Pillar 1: Pillar 2: Pillar 3: Pillar 4:
Internal infrastructure External infrastructure Business support services Environment and safety
and utilities and connectivity and facilities
IMT Manesar, Haryana Hebbal Industrial Area, Dahej 1, Bharuch, Gujarat Autonagar and Apparel Park,
Karnataka Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
APSEZ Atchutapuram, Andhra SIPCOT IP, Thoothukudi, Industrial Growth Center, Bommasandra Jigani Link Road,
Pradesh Tamil Nadu Urla, Chattisgarh Bangalore, Karnataka

Talegaon Industrial Area - Pune, Welspun Anjar SEZ Ltd., SIPCOT IP, Irungattukottai, SEZ P1 and P2, Dhar, Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra Gujarat Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu

APSEZ = Andhra Pradesh Special Economic Zone, IMT = Industrial Model Township, SEZ = Special Economic Zone, SIPCOT IP = State Industries Promotion
Corporation Tamil Nadu Industrial Park.

7
ADB BRIEFS NO. 127

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