Little over six weeks after it went to town claiming that it had bagged a massive Rs 2.06 lakh investment by pipping at least five States in the country, the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis Government in Maharashtra on Tuesday suffered a humiliation as Gujarat walked away with the Rs 1.54 lakh crore Vedanta Group-Foxconn Joint Venture (JV) project.
In what is being seen as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role behind Maharashtra losing the prestigious project to the State Assembly poll-bound Gujarat, Vedanta on Tuesday signed two Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with the Bhupendrabhai Patel government to set up a semiconductor fab unit, a display fab unit, and a semiconductor assembling and testing unit in Ahmedabad district of the neighbouring state.
As per the MOUs signed between Vedanta and Gujarat Government in the presence of Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendrabhai Patel and Vedanta Group Chairman Anil Agarwal, the Vedanta Group-Foxconn JV envisages a total investment of Rs 1,54,000 crore, while it promises to provide employment to around 1 lakh people.
The proposed semiconductor manufacturing fab unit will operate on the 28nm technology nodes and the display manufacturing unit will produce Generation 8 displays catering to small, medium and large applications. Vedanta will hold 60 per cent of the equity in the JV while Foxconn will own 40 per cent. The JV will look at setting up a semiconductor manufacturing plant in the next two years.
Ironically enough, the Maharashtra government had signed a deal — which incidentally was the single biggest investment of its kind received by Maharashtra — was signed with Vedanta in the presence of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis on July 26, 2022.
On its part, the Maharashtra government had claimed that it had edged out the states of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, which were eyeing for this huge investment
Tuesday’s development left the Shinde-Fadnavis government in an embarrassing situation, with formal reaction forthcoming from either the chief minister or the deputy chief minister. While Chief minister Eknath Shinde kept mum, Fadnavis quietly landed in Russia to unveil the Statue of Lokshahir Annabhau Sathe and interact with the India Diaspora there.
Upset with the manner in which the Maharashtra government had lost the prestigious project to Gujarat, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents slammed the Shinde-Fadnavis government for its failure to retain the project with the state.
While it not known yet as to what prompted Vedanta to sign a fresh deal with Gujarat government by backing out of the deal signed with the Shinde-Fadnavis government, official sources said that Modi had tilted the balance towards his home state Gujarat where the State Assembly polls are due in December this year.
Earlier this year, Vedanta Group – a mining giant based in Mumbai – had partnered with the Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) with plans to invest USD 15 billion in phases over the next five-ten years to manufacture semiconductor chips and displays in India.