Industry

• Baddi–Barotiwala–Nalagarh (BBN) in Solan district is the industrial core — one of Asia's largest pharmaceutical manufacturing clusters, with several hundred units. It grew explosively after the 2003 central industrial package of tax concessions for Himachal and Uttarakhand.
• Cement — ACC Barmana (Bilaspur), Ambuja Darlaghat (Solan), Gagal; limestone is the state's principal mineral.
• Other centres: Parwanoo, Kala Amb (Sirmaur), Mehatpur and Gagret (Una), Shoghi, Sansarpur Terrace (Kangra), Pandoh.
• Small-scale and traditional — handloom and handicraft, shawls, food processing, rosin and turpentine from chir pine.
• Minerals — limestone, dolomite, rock salt at Mandi (Drang and Guma — the only rock salt deposit in India outside Rajasthan), barytes, gypsum, silica sand, slate.

Issues

• The end of the tax-concession period slowed fresh investment; retaining units is a policy theme.
• Effluent and groundwater stress in the BBN belt.
• Limited industrialisation elsewhere because of terrain, transport cost and Section 118 land restrictions.