TA-6910 IND: Supporting Institutional Knowledge Development and Capacity Building for Planning of Innovative and Sustainable Projects and Programs - IPRS 3.0 Study (55311-001)

TA-6910 IND: Supporting Institutional Knowledge Development and Capacity Building for Planning of Innovative and Sustainable Projects and Programs - IPRS 3.0 Study (55311-001)

Date Published: 14-May-2024

Deadline of Submitting EOI: 04-Jun-2024 04:00 PM Manila local time

SELECTION PROFILE

Consultant Type: Firm

Selection Method: Simplified Consultants' Qualifications Selection (SCQS)

Selection Title: Supporting Institutional Knowledge Development and Capacity Building for Planning of Innovative and Sustainable Projects and Programs

Package Name: IPRS 3.0 Study

Engagement Period: 10MONTH

Consulting Services Budget: USD 335,000

Source: National

Technical Proposal: Single-Stage Proposal (SSP)

Approval Number: 6910

Approval Date: 22-Mar-2022

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Country of assignment: India

Country of eligibility for national consultants: Same as country of assignment

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Primary Expertise: Industrial Development Strategy

TOR Keywords: industrial development strategy, major corridor programs and industrial area development programs

Objective and Purpose of the Assignment

IPRS (Industrial Park Rating System) launched as a pilot exercise during November 2018 has gained priority across India and has come in the forefront for enhancing industrial competitiveness. With focus on enhancing transparency across India’s industrial infrastructure through the India Industrial Land Bank (IILB), this program gained a lot of traction under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan of the Government of India.

IPRS was conceptualized with an aim to enhance industrial infrastructure competitiveness and support policy development for enabling industrialization across the country. This rating system was based on a framework that supported identification of enablers required for development of industrial infrastructure across the nominated parks in the country. IPRS gained acceptance across stakeholders due to its inclusive nature, framework design and evolutionary process, while ensuring that the principle of cooperative federalism is applied. The inclusivity of the program by way of extensive consultations and deliberations made participating entities i.e., the SIDCs (State Industrial Development Corporations), SEZs (Special Economic Zones), Private industrial park developers, various central departments and ministries feel more involved in program design, development and roll-out. For performing industrial infrastructure and industrial ecosystem assessment, two globally renowned and accepted frameworks were benchmarked, with adjustments made to reflect the Indian context. The pilot rating framework was conceptualized across four pillars— internal infrastructure and utilities, external infrastructure and facilities, business support services, and environment and safety management. These pillars were assessed across multiple parameters, finalized with various stakeholders, which provided vital insights regarding factors that drive industrial competitiveness. Under the pilot phase, 202 parks were nominated, out of which 177 parks across 21 states were evaluated based on the above pillars. The assessment was administered via an online platform. Assessment of 177 parks under the IPRS clearly demonstrated that while parks were stronger in terms of the first two pillars of internal and external infrastructure, further augmentation was required under the balance pillars - business facilitation and environment and safety management. IPRS 2.0 benchmarked other globally recognized frameworks to upgrade the 4-pillar framework design, with further inquiry across additional parameters of sustainability, support services and enhanced infrastructure features. The IPRS 2.0 evaluated industrial parks and SEZs across 45 and 40 parameters respectively. It covered 31 states and union territories of India. IPRS 2.0 introduced new features to bring further robustness in its assessment including wider coverage of parks (minimum area for nomination was relaxed, maximum parks that can be nominated by a state was increased to 30), private sector parks assessment, SEZ identified as separate category, and tenant feedback survey for qualitative assessment. This was further enabled by a 60:40 scoring mechanism (60% weight assigned to developer response evaluated through documentary evidence and its verification and 40% weightage to tenant feedback). In addition to the above, the framework was opened for all the parks mapped on India Industrial Land Bank for self-assessment (not considered for rating) to enable development corporations to identify the key areas of support. IPRS 2.0 was developed to achieve the below mentioned objectives: A) To improve industrial infrastructure B) Support EoDB reform agenda of providing transparent information. C) Enable states to showcase their strengths and promote investment in the state industrial ecosystem. D) Benchmark and identify gaps to structure interventions. E) Recognize best practices and promote competition among parks. F) Help industries to identify suitable investment destinations through a single platform.478 parks and zones were nominated out of which 449 were considered for rating purposes. The nominated parks were required to share basic details including tenant (industrial units in the park) data. To provide further perspective on the scale and size of the engagement, more than 5700 tenants across these parks and zones participated in the survey responding to over 150,000 questions. More than 15,000 documents were evaluated, supported by over 3200 clarification exchange. 1614 parks across the country undertook the self-assessment exercise. Engaging with development corporations through the Gap Assessment Report To take forward IPRS and the engagement with Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and participating SIDCs, ADB supported DPIIT in preparation of the Supplementary reports (Gap Assessment Reports) for all participating states and union territories. These reports aimed to provide in-depth understanding of the gaps identified across the four pillars of assessment across the nominated and self-assessed parks. Further, the reports provide a state wise perspective that supports dialogue between DPIIT and the states, for dissemination of these findings.In parallel to the development of the gap assessment reports, state wise workshops were organized by DPIIT and Invest India with support from ADB. The workshops undertook various activities viz. i) dissemination of findings from IPRS 2.0, ii) seeking feedback from states on the support that may be extended from DPIIT to enable their industrial infrastructure, iii) handholding required on updating IILB to make it ready for next edition of IPRS, iv) support on access to various programs and schemes intended for industrial infrastructure. In order to take forward the Gap Assessment Study, pursuant to the state level workshops, DPIIT organized a ‘National Workshop on IPRS’. This workshop was aimed at enabling exchange of best practices, provide a platform to enable dialogue between various stakeholders of industrial development, and seek suggestions and recommendations for taking forward the IPRS program.II. IPRS 3.0 A high-level Steering Committee constituted by the DPIIT to oversee the progress of IPRS 2.0 had several recommendations for inclusion in the next phase of IPRS. The key recommendations were a) Inclusion of other stakeholders for enhancing responsiveness of the parks and zones, b) enabling comparison and assessment in terms of cost of doing business, c) focusing more on the issue of sustainability, d) inclusion of quantitative parameters viz. exports, gender participation ratio, FDI, land utilization for generating output etc., e) developing support program as an outcome of IPRS to enable implementation of various reforms/ interventions etc.III. The addition of items under “d” above are critical for assessing the effectiveness of the different characteristics of industrial parks. Given that industrial infrastructure can be costly, it is important for the government to have information on how effective different types of infrastructure are in promoting investments, generating output and exports, and creating employment.Scope of work for IPRS 3.0DPIIT requested ADB to initiate the process of Industrial Park Rating System (IPRS) 3.0. IPRS 3.0. is intended to be developed by DPIIT with ADB’s technical assistance. IPRS 3.0 shall be developed as an online system accessible by various stakeholders. It will adopt the broad framework of IPRS 2.0 and further enhance it, based on the recommendations of steering committee constituted for the IPRS 2.0. The rating system shall evaluate nominated industrial parks by various state and central governments through a qualitative and quantitative assessment framework, and scoring shall be assigned to identify top parks across various categories and award them with recognition. Following is the detailed scope of work for IPRS 3.0:a) Development of IPRS 3.0 assessment framework • Review of the stakeholder feedback received during IPRS Pilot Phase, IPRS 2.0 and IPRS Gap Assessment Report study, and collation of the same as inputs towards preparation of IPRS 3.0 assessment framework. • Review Gap Assessment insights collected during the Gap Assessment Study and the national workshop (held in July 2023) and align the same with IPRS 2.0 framework, in order to list potential additional parameters that should be included in the IPRS 3.0. • Provide support towards preparation of presentations and ensuing deliberation on the IPRS 3.0 framework, across various forums that may be organized by DPIIT including the Steering Committee meetings, Independent Experts of ADB, Invest India, State Industrial Development Corporations and other stakeholders. • Collation of inputs from various stakeholders and updating the IPRS 3.0 framework for review and approval of DPIIT • Develop criteria for park/SEZ participation in IPRS 3.0. For avoidance of doubt, , the consultant in coordination with ADB and Invest India will propose the eligibility conditions for participation in IPRS 3.0. • Undertake benchmarking study of the interventions during IPRS 2.0 to enable SIDCs and other participating agencies to conduct comparative assessment between IPRS 2.0 and initiatives that can be presented in IPRS 3.0. • Preparation of interim documents/assessment framework of the IPRS 3.0 for presenting them to DPIIT and other stakeholders such as participating SIDCs and other Central/ State/ UT/ Private Sector agencies for review and feedback. • Preparation/updating of charter of indicative documentation issued during IPRS 2.0 aligned with the assessment parameters under IPRS 3.0 for approval of DPIIT. • Develop a plan in association with Invest India for assessing which features and characteristics of industrial parks (especially those pertinent to the IPRS pillars) are essential for improved economic outcomes (such as production revenues, exports, domestic and foreign investment, and employment). Relevant data should be collected for these at the park level if not tenant level.b) Develop a Roll-Out / Implementation plan for undertaking the program and participate in various meetings and workshops • Prepare a charter of activities to be undertaken by various stakeholders including the flow of information, approvals that may be required, activities to be undertaken by various stakeholders. • Prepare the charter of timelines and identify roles and responsibilities across the various stakeholders responsible for successful implementation of the IPRS 3.0 • Attend and debrief / present wherever required by ADB in the various meetings and workshops that may be organized by DPIIT for achieving various milestones of IPRS 3.0 • Provide timely draft minutes of meetings to DPIIT. c) IPRS 3.0 platform development in integration with India Industrial Land Bank • Support in coordination with the concerned agency for development of IPRS 3.0 framework and its integration in the IILB portal • Support in providing conceptual structure of IPRS 3.0 that shall be integrated on IILB portal that can be accessed by various participating stakeholders. • Support in conducting tests of the platform functions in coordination with the concerned agency that shall be deputed by DPIIT.d) Implementation and execution of IPRS 3.0 framework • As a part of IPRS 3.0, DPIIT would undertake field-based assessment. To achieve this objective, develop a robust framework for sampling and selection of parks / zones for undertaking field visits. The consulting agency appointed by Invest India shall undertake the field visits with the approval and support of DPIIT. Develop a robust framework for the assessment of how key features of industrial parks are associated with improved economic outcomes and execute this assessment through a combination of data collection (including secondary data) and field visits. • Support in organizing workshops and provide handholding support in coordination with DPIIT and Invest India to the participating SIDCs and other Central/ State/ UT/ Private Sector stakeholder in the program. • Coordinate with the platform developing agency for collation of responses on the IPRS 3.0 platform. • Undertake the development of user / industry feedback mechanism aligned with the IPRS 3.0 framework. • Provide support and coordinate collation and assessment of findings from the user/ industry feedback survey. • For the current program, like in IPRS 2.0, ADB will constitute a panel of verification experts. Provide support to the verification experts in undertaking the verification of documents submitted by the nominated parks on the IPRS portal in accordance with the verification guidelines developed by ADB and Invest India and approved by DPIIT. • Provide support in coordination between the panel of verification experts, DPIIT, nominated agency for user SIDC coordination, participating SIDCs and other stakeholders as may be relevant. • Collation of final results and analysis of findings (user / industry feedback survey, tenant response, field visit-based assessment) • Support in preparation of relevant periodic update presentations for the Steering Committee and DPIIT as may be finalized by DPIIT.e) Report preparation & National workshop • Support DPIIT and Invest India along with ADB in organizing state dissemination workshops and providing necessary inputs in form of presentation and discussion notes. • Collation and compilation of inputs from various experts and developing the report structure. • Lead the preparation of the IPRS 3.0 Report for submission to DPIIT and oversee the report preparation. • Support in compilation and collation of feedback / inputs received from SIDCs and other stakeholders for development of the subsequent edition of IPRS. • Support in conceptualizing the IPRS 3.0 workshop and coordinating with DPIIT for delivering the workshop including coordinating with concerned agency for post event report preparation. • Support in publication and launch/release of the IPRS 3.0 report. f) All the data collected during IPRS 3.0 will be the property of DPIIT and the data cannot be used in any form without written permission from DPIIT.