That new territory, scattered all over India, will be part of the dozens of approved and planned Special Economic Zones (SEZ), billed as low-tax, no-hassle, highpriority enclaves that are fast becoming the supreme policy initiative of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government.

They will be part of an un precedented tax regime, with flexible economic laws that will save businesses there much more money than those located outside their walls. For tax purposes, they will be considered “foreign territory.” Assuming that all is farmland, the 100,000 hectares used for building the zones would produce 250 million kilograms of rice or 70 million kilograms of sugarcane, going by national crop averages. With those concerns in mind, the central government has now told the states to make sure only barren land is used to build SEZs.

The SEZs will range from 10 hectares to self-contained townships across thousands of hectares. There will be airports, immaculately designed roads, state-of-the art hospitals,schools, movie theatres, shopping malls, homes and manicured parks. It is conceivable that overseas visitors would be able to fly in and out of these picturesque preserves without having to face the real India.

“I think in our lifetime this is the biggest intervention of economic policy that we have seen,’’ Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman of the National Council on Infrastructure at the Confederation of Indian Industry, said.