' India has faltered from the growth trajectory after the establishment of Kandla EPZ'. Do you agree? Give reasons in support of your answer.

Value Points

• India’s vision to trigger growth can be judged from the fact that it set up the first SEZ in Kandla (Gujarat) way back in 1965.

• From then on the right momentum to growth of SEZ could be gained only in 2005 with the implementation of SEZ Act, 2005.

However, despite the vision, there exists various bottlenecks that hamper the growth process:

• There exists large scale corruption at all levels of administrations.

• There are procedural complications for companies with regard to being a part of SEZs.

• The acquisition of land for the purpose of SEZ has not been appropriate in the sense that a large area of agricultural land was acquired.

• As a result of the land acquisition, a large number of labours lost source of livelihood.

• SEZs were set up without proper infrastructure in place.