The ‘baby elephant’ was rightly winged as the investment proposals from India Inc. and from offshore crossed over Rs 3 lakh crores at the second day of Global Investors’ Summit here on Friday.
Investment commitments were primarily made in the fields of urban development, mining, industry and also non-traditional segments and unexplored such as tourism, art and culture.
The biggest attraction for the investors coming from across the country and abroad remained urban development and housing which grabbed 17 proposals worth Rs 38,320 crore. The projects are expected to provide direct jobs to over 50,000 persons and directly employing nearly 96,000.
However, the highest number of proposals, i.e. 121, came for the mining and industry with proposed investment in the tune of Rs 2,10,505 crore and expected to provide employment to over 2 lakh persons. Another notable sector got overwhelming response was tourism, art and culture with eight proposals for investing Rs 2273 crore in the State.
IT and Industry Secretary Sunil Barnwal, presenting a report card of the two-day event, said that total 210 MoUs carrying investments in the tune of Rs 3,10,287 crore were signed which was more than double of the expectation. Making the event even fruitful in nature, the Government also provided land allotment letters readily available for some industries. This includes 65 acres to cement major lafarge and 28.86 acre to Hindustan Petroleum at Barhi for setting up lPG plant.
Validating the enthusiasm shown, Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma declared the State as ‘investment ready’. “The success has established the credential of a young State which is now completely investment ready. Presence of the captains of industries has proved that. We have got a number of proposals for investment in agriculture, food processing, information technology, mines, urban development where lots of interest were shown. We, on the part of the Government, can assure here that all the MoUs are going to be followed in a time bound manner with timelines drawn. We are going to fix the milestones for future with setting up coordination with all the departments,” said the Chief Secretary, reflecting the momentum the GIS has gained.
As follow-up action, two websites meant for NRIs from Jharkhand and startups in the State were also launched which is expected to boost investors’ sentiments.
The pace for signing so many of MoUs gained when businessmen held as many as 470 business to business meetings together along with 80 business to Government meetings before the agreements were inked. Total 11,029 delegates came attending the Summit out of which 600 were from offshore.
Another notable outcome from the GIS is going to be in the field of tiny, small and medium sectors which is highly labour intensive, the area Jharkhand is quite rich in. ‘laghu Udyog Bharti’, the wing working under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries for MSMEs, has signed an agreement for setting up industrial parks in every district of the State besides, skill development centres in Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Ranchi.
The bugle sounded also heard in France when its Consul General in India Damien Syed said that French companies have lined up for investing in the State.
The sentiment attracted accolades from the Centre as well when Union Minister for IT Ravi Shankar Prasad termed it a paradigm shift in the mindset depicting true potential of Jharkhand whereas his colleague from Commerce Ministry Nirmala Sitaraman termed the State full of possibilities. “Jharkhand is surprising us everyday. It has come to the centrestage from nowhere. Its Start-up policy is the best and the State is in a true sense elephant which has now started flying,” she said.
Taking the discourse forward, an overwhelmed Chief Minister Raghubar Das said that State was there to take all the pains of industries in Jharkhand and come out with all the happiness in return. Das said that it was not just a coincidence that the Mineral sector which is what Jharkhand has been known for, remained least talked about topic during the two-day investment attracting mega show.
“Most of the investments promised to be made in State during these two days are from agriculture, food and feed processing, textiles and tourism. A soon to be started Mother Dairy unit somewhere between Ranchi and Jamshedpur, agreement on establishment of a footwear manufacturing unit, first PoS machine manufacturing unit by one Chinese company with an investment of Rs 1,200 Crores, all are testimony of the fact that the government has also shifted its focus to employment generating sectors now, and that industry has also started exploring potentials in sectors other than mining,” said the buoyant CM.
He added that the success of the event and number of investment proposals the government received was not outcome of just two days, but a concerted and rigorous effort by entire machinery since last one year. “The Government organised three overseas road-shows and over half a dozen in domestic market to edge the image of brand Jharkhand. We have been working since the day our government assumed office to change the way we were looked at internationally and nationally, and the success of this event is the proof that we were on right path,” said the CM.