It needs to be understood that land is the most sensitive issue as far as an Indian farmer is concerned. It's not treated as just an economic resource, but more often than not, has a strong emotional connect as well. There is an increased confidence among Indian farmers in SEZs with the implementation of a "Willing buyer Willing seller" model for land acquisition.

Going forward, developers can be asked to take voluntary steps to ensure that a farmer selling his land for a project, becomes a partner in the prosperity that the project generates. It isn't difficult to achieve. In the large-scale SEZ or industrial projects, 10-12 per cent of land in the developed project should be returned back on a commensurate basis to farmers who have given their land for development. This will lead to an "all-inclusive" growth, and will be win-win situation for all parties. It will be a major incentive for farmers to sell their land for such projects and facilitate the land acquisition process.

SEZs in India still form just an infinitesimal fraction of the total Indian land-mass. At present, the total land area proposed for SEZs in various parts of the country is just 1,945 sq km. This comprises of all SEZ projects, including the ones which have been notified, the ones which have got formal approval and the ones which have just got an in-principle approval. This is just 0.065 per cent of India's total land area, which is about 30 lakh sq km and just 0.12 per cent of agricultural land, which covers a little more than 16 lakh sq km. There have been talks of imposing a one per cent cap on industrialisation in the country, which leaves 30,000 sq km land in the country as industrialisable. Even if SEZs form a mere 25 per cent of all industrialisation projects, there is scope for earmarking an additional 4,500 sq km. Here, it needs to be understood that SEZs will not just be industrial hubs. It will be proper urban centres.

The empowered group of ministers (EGOM) on SEZs have imposed an upper cap of 5,000 hectares for multi-product SEZs in the country. It is a balanced decision, considering the current political scenario. However, the government should keep a flexible approach to the issue, and should not be closed to the idea of further liberalising this upper-cap. SEZ developers all over the world agree that the bigger the scale is, the better is the project. The Chinese experience is a living manifestation of this. While 1,945 sq km of land have been earmarked for over 500 projects in India, the Hainan SEZ in China alone covers an area of 34,000 sq km.

A clear distinction should also be made as to which land to notify for such SEZ projects. It should not be ruled out that agriculture is still the source of sustenance to the maximum number of Indian families.

At present, India's total cultivable area is estimated to be about 173 million hectares. At the same time, an estimated 108 million hectares can be developed for nonagricultural uses, as they are either forested, or unsuited for agriculture.

State governments should ensure that fertile land is not notified for industrialisation projects, and that, these projects should only be limited to barren and waste land.