Chief Minister Raman Singh on Sunday addressed a large number of NRIs in the 'Pravasiya Bhartiya Diwas 2017' convention being held in Bengaluru from January 7 to 9 in Karnataka.
The Chief Minister called upon NRIs from various countries to give preference to Chhattisgarh while making capital investment in India.
He said; “I invite you to visit Naya Raipur and Chhattisgarh. You should come and personally witness the progress of this new State and learn about the immense possibilities of capital investment in the State”.
Singh said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India's economy is entering a new era of development. India is progressing fast towards the era of cashless transactions with a goal to become a cashless economy.
The Chief Minister appealed to NRIs to become a part of Prime Minister's Make-in-India campaign by coming forward to set up industries in India and empowering the economy of the country.
In the same sequence, Singh informed NRIs about the socio-economic, cultural and aesthetic features of Chhattisgarh.
He said that this new State of India was emerging as a destination with immense possibilities for industrial capital investments. Within a few years of its formation, Chhattisgarh had established its identity as fastest developing State.
The Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh cleared the myths of entrepreneurs and capital investors regarding Naxal problems in Chhattisgarh.
Singh informed them that Chhattisgarh was the most peaceful and industry-friendly State. One can easily visit any part of Chhattisgarh without any hassle. As far as Naxal-problem was concerned, it had shrunk to small part of Bastar region.
Combined efforts of Centre and State would soon uproot Maoists from the State, he promised.
The Chief Minister informed that core-sector in Chhattisgarh had sufficient inflow of capital investment. Chhattisgarh had great potential for capital investment in non-core sectors as well.
He informed NRIs that Naya Raipur was emerging as the most planned city of the country in 21st century.
Singh also mentioned about the efforts being made to set up industries in various sectors of Naya Raipur and Chhattisgarh.
He also gave detailed information about the simple industrial policy of the State government, underlining that in Chhattisgarh, industrial development has been linked to creation of employment opportunities.
Meanwhile, it may be recalled that Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said after his 10-day tour of the United States recently that American entrepreneurs and NRIs have shown keen interest in 'Make in Chhattisgarh' vision created on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' campaign.
On the occasion, Singh informed that the main motive of his US tour was to promote capital investment in various sectors of manufacturing under 'Make in Chhattisgarh' campaign and to project Chhattisgarh as an inseparable part of 'Make in India' campaign at global level.
Singh said that he and delegation of State government attended Investors' Meet at New York on November 29, at Chicago on November 30 and at San Francisco on December 2. These meets were jointly organized by US-Indian Business Council (USIBC) and TII-Global.
In these events, more than 70 American industrialists, NRIs and CEOs of various companies participated.
likewise, the Investors' Meet in Chicago was attended by more than 60 investors and that in San Francisco was attended by more than 60 investors. American investors were invited to invest in Chhattisgarh.
In these events, Chhattisgarh Government's delegation had one-to-one discussions with investors about the wide scope of investment in non-core sectors of Chhattisgarh such as IT, defense, food processing, pharmaceuticals, solar energy, start-up and bio-technology.
The industrial groups with whom the delegation had discussions include UTS Global, E-Kisan Foundation, Global India Business Council, Vanguard Technology, Physician of Indian Origin, Cysco, Google and others.
In the Investors' Meet of San Francisco, three major MoUs were signed. On the occasion, Stanford University signed MoU with Chhattisgarh Government for exchange of teaching material, research, professors and students for educational purpose and also for creating awareness for prevention of rheumatic heart disease in Chhattisgarh.
Wadhwani Foundation signed MoU with Chhattisgarh to promote entrepreneurship in Chhattisgarh, which includes providing employment opportunities and promotion of Start-up and SMI Eco-system for skill development.
Under the MoU signed by Spinta Global Accelerator with Chhattisgarh, steps will be taken to enhance professional competency and entrepreneurial skills in youth of the state.
Under the leadership of the Chief Minister, Chhattisgarh Government's delegation visited Digital Start-up 1871-Technical and Entrepreneurial Development Centre in Chicago, which was established to provide technical, financial and commercial assistance and guidance to Digital Start-up Business Community of Chicago, officials informed.
A total of 400 High growth digital start-up works are underway in this centre. The delegation met the Chief Operational Officer of this centre Tom Alexander and had a discussion about developing start-up sector in Chhattisgarh. On December 2, delegation visited Google campus in San Francisco and met Vice-President Product Management Anjali Joshi and Group Product Manager Meenal Mehta to discuss about the scope of cooperation between Google and Chhattisgarh Government in sectors of health, IT and education.
On December 2, the delegation visited 500 start-up campus in San Francisco. Officials of Chhattisgarh met members of 500 Start-up Group and discussed about start-up ecosystem.
It may also be recalled that US Ambassador to India Richard R. Verma had called on Chief Minister Raman Singh at his office on October 25 last year in the Mantralaya in Naya Raipur.
The Ambassador during his meeting with the Chief Minister said he would encourage the American investments in higher education, Innovation, Smart City, pharmaceutical companies, I.T. and medical field. Singh later gave a detailed presentation of immense investment potential for American companies in Chhattisgarh.
It may be recalled that American and Chinese firms as well as other domestic industrial groups had evinced keen interest in investing in various sectors of Chhattisgarh in February last year. Notably, a delegation of American Chamber of Commerce and US-India Business Council led by American Consul General Thomas Vajda had also met Chief Minister Raman Singh in Mumbai . During the second day of the 'Make in India' event in Mumbai, the Chief Minister had invited top investors to invest in Chhattisgarh.
During his discussion with the American and Chinese delegations, Singh had assured the delegates of providing every possible support for setting up industrial projects in Chhattisgarh.
Commerce and Industry Minister Amar Agrawal, Chairman of Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC) Chhagan Mundra and Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand were also present.
The American delegation had evinced interest for making investments in road sector, modernization of Railway stations, airports, warehouses, export of frozen agricultural products, water and sewerage treatment in Naya Raipur, Information Technology and Start-ups in Chhattisgarh.
The Chief Minister also had discussions with more than 50 investors during the last two days and invited them to invest in Chhattisgarh. This included Managing Director of lanco Solar Rajkumar Rai, Director of ITC limited Sanjeev Puri, Kirloskar Group Chairman Sanjay Kirloskar, Aavesh Jain of Ruchi Soya, Pradeep Naiyyar of Autodesh, Darshan Hira Nandani of Hira Nandani Group, renowned Architect Hafeez Contractor, Goldy Behl of Rose Audio Visual, Praveen Chheda of Sugal and Damaani Group, Pradeep Agrawal, Arun lakhani of Vishwaraj Infastructure, and Vivek Gupta of GEPl Capital.
In order to explore potential areas of partnership, the delegation was very keen to lay the groundwork for US companies on partnering the State and industrial units in Chhattisgarh, under Centre’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and wanted to leverage on the State’s strengths in “Ease of Doing Business”, officials stated.