PANAJI: A crucial Investment Promotion Board meeting slated for next Wednesday will be held for the first time in the absence of its chairman, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is undergoing treatment at the AIIMS hospital in New Delhi.
Parrikar's absence will be significant, given that the IPB is expected to deliberate and decide on private investment projects worth a whopping Rs 800 crore.
It will however be chaired by Information Technology Minister Rohan Khaunte who is vice-chairman of the IPB.
Khaunte was told by Parrikar to go ahead and guide the proceedings of IPB on Wednesday, during the discussions they had at AIIMS Delhi. He was one of the six ministers to have met the Chief Minister one-to-one on Thursday.
The setting up of the IPB with an independent administrative office and a technocrat Chief Executive Officer, was a significant reform introduced to improve the ease-of-doing-business in the State by Parrikar during his previous term before he had become Defence Minister.
