Scope for investment in Jharkhand got a big boost with the first edition of the Global Investors’ Summit (GIS), which kicked off here on Thursday, showing a great deal of excitement among the business houses from across the country and abroad.
The two-day summit opened with industry leaders expressing the hope to infuse investment to the tune of `3.5 lakh crore which would be primarily in the field of power, steel, food processing, solar power, cement, mining, industrial parks, housing and urban development. Partner country Australia assured an investment of `2 cr at ISM, Dhanbad.
Most promising was the coal to chemical project from Adani Group with investment to the tune of `50,000 cr with tentative operation in five years’ time. About 45 MT coal would be used in the process every year and the corporate major would be investing.
Essar Power, on the other, expressed concern over de-allocated coal block for its Tori plant in latehar and looking at fuel linkage and fresh auction of coal block. It has committed for about `10,000 crore in Jharkhand for setting up a 1,200 MW power plant at Tori and development of Toskiud North Coal Mine with an estimated investment of about `1,100 crore.
The Summit also brought besides concerns, the hope for brighter future when the Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley, while inaugurating the conclave, hailed the evolved political thought process over the period of time which, he said, has the reformed playing fields for industry and investment in the eastern region of the country.
The summit is being attended by about 6,200 delegates.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was scheduled to address the meet through video conference, extended his wishes for the success of the summit. “Best wishes for @InvestJharkhand. May the deliberations in this Summit lead to fruitful outcomes that contribute to Jharkhand’s growth,” Modi tweeted.
Referring to the poor show of the States like Jharkhand, a part of erstwhile Bihar, Jaitley was of the view that it can grow 4-5 per cent more than the national average.
“Mainly there are two reasons for lack of development; one is flawed economic policy of the Government and second, the political thought process. Earlier, it was thought that running the business was the responsibility of the Government. During the time of Bihar the political model was such that there is no need of economic development and social engineering alone can make you win elections. I believe that was the reason why the sentiment for a separate
State in the form of Jharkhand came and now we are seeing an environment where reluctance to business houses is gone,” said Jaitley.
“Why such a great business house had chosen the placeIJ There was sufficient reason behind. But the desired progress of the area could not be done despite investment trickling down, due to political instability which also led to stigma of corruption to come in the way. But now Jharkhand is shedding that. A stable Government is here with development as its prime agenda. I can see it growing 4-5 per cent ahead of the national growth rate since red-tapism and corruption have been weeded out,” said the Union Minister.
He also hailed the effort of organising two-day GIS as the first major step for a bright future and said that best of Jharkhand is about to come. Jaitley underlined the ‘industry-friendly’ Government in place with honchos of industry starting from Ratan Tata, Shashi Ruia of Essar, Anil Agarwal of Vedanta, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of Aditya Birla group, Naveel Jindal of JSPl present and listening.
The observation of the Finance Minister came true when Chief Minister Raghubar Das announced to monitor the execution of the investment proposals at his level.
Ambassadors and High Commissioners of the four partner countries - Japan, Australia, Tunisia and Mongolia - were also present on the occasion.
“I am assuring you all that every month I am going to dispose the investment proposals coming so that confidence of the investors can be built up constantly. We are going to have the Jharkhand Investors Promotion Board for that. In the next 8-10 years, Jharkhand can become a leading State of not only the country but of the world,” said the CM substantiating the perception.
Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu termed the changing scenario of the region which houses ‘BIMARU’ State including Jharkhand. “Many states of the BIMARU, including Jharkhand have come out of it. We at the Centre are going to solidly back the proposals coming from the State. We have ‘MODI’ the new matra which stands for ‘Make Developed India’ which includes every State and build a Team India. Jharkhand has entered into 17th year and catching attention of entire country,” said Naidu. Other Central Ministers, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goel and Smriti Irani, besides former Team India captain M S Dhoni were also present.