Looking ahead at India’s development journey, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the textile, tourism, and technology sectors will play a significant role in creating crores of new jobs. Modi said investments in these sectors will help them make a global impact when the world is looking at India with hope and enthusiasm. Speaking during the inauguration of the Global Investment Summit organised by the Madhya Pradesh government in Bhopal, Modi said the state has the potential to be among the top five in the country in terms of GDP.
Arguing that states should build on their strengths, Modi gave the example of the textiles sector. “India was the second-largest producer of cotton, silk, polyester, and viscose. India also had a rich tradition, skills, and entrepreneurship in textiles. Madhya Pradesh, being the cotton capital of India, contributes to around 25 per cent of the country's organic cotton supply and is the largest producer of mulberry silk while the state's Chanderi and Maheshwari sarees are highly appreciated and have received the GI Tag.” The investments in this sector will take Madhya Pradesh's textiles to a global scale.
Modi highlighted the need to go beyond traditional textiles so that technical textiles such as agro textiles, medical textiles, and geotextiles get promoted. He said a national mission has been initiated for this purpose, which has been encouraged in the budget. Modi noted that the Government's PM MITRA scheme is well-known, and seven large textile parks were being developed across the country, including one in Madhya Pradesh.
The prime minister urged investors to take advantage of the PLI scheme announced for the textile sector.
Madhya Pradesh has seen BJP governments for the past 20 years. Modi said the state has come a long way in the past two decades making it an attractive investment destination.
He praised Chief Minister Mohan Yadav for putting the state on the growth track. Yadav, in his speech, highlighted that the state government has come out with 18 policies which will increase the ease of doing business in the state.
The state government was hopeful that the investments during this summit would surpass all the records. Adani Group will invest a massive Rs 1.10 lakh crore in Madhya Pradesh across pumped storage, cement, mining, smart meters and thermal energy, creating more than 1,20,000 jobs by 2030.
At the national level, the Modi government is pushing the states to organise their state-specific investment summits to create jobs and push development. On the day he inaugurated this summit in Bhopal, he inaugurated another one in Assam in the evening.
“The whole world is optimistic about India”, Modi said, "it was for the first time such an opportunity had risen in the history of India.”
PM shared the optimism shared by the policy experts and institutions about India. Recalling the recent statement by the World Bank that India will continue to remain the fastest-growing economy, the prime minister highlighted that a representative from the OECD remarked, "The future of the world is in India."
He added that recently, a UN organization on climate change declared India as a solar power superpower.
Apart from the textiles sector, Modi highlighted the potential of the tourism sector in the state, particularly medical tourism. The "Heal in India" mantra is gaining global popularity, and investment opportunities in the health and wellness sector are continuously increasing.
The prime minister said that India's traditional treatments and AYUSH are being promoted on a large scale, and special AYUSH visas are being issued. He emphasized that these initiatives will greatly benefit Madhya Pradesh.
The prime minister was all praise for the state as it transformed in the last two decades. “The state which once struggled with poor roads, is now one of the leading states in India's EV revolution as around 2 lakh electric vehicles were registered here."
“India has witnessed a boom in infrastructure over the past decade," Modi remarked highlighting that Madhya Pradesh has greatly benefited from this development. The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, which connects two major cities, passes significantly through MP, providing fast connectivity to Mumbai's ports and North India's markets. He also highlighted that Madhya Pradesh now has a road network of over five lakh kilometres. He noted that MP's industrial corridors are connected to modern expressways, ensuring rapid growth in the logistics sector.
The prime minister noted that Madhya Pradesh has greatly benefited from the boom in the energy sector. He said that today, MP is power surplus with a power generation capacity of around 31,000 MW, of which 30 per cent is clean energy. He highlighted that Rewa Solar Park is one of the largest in the country, and recently, a floating solar plant was inaugurated in Omkareshwar. Modi mentioned that the Government has invested around ₹50,000 crore in the Bina Refinery Petrochemical Complex, which will help make Madhya Pradesh a hub for petrochemicals.
Growth potential
Madhya Pradesh economy can potentially increase its Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) to US$2.1 trillion (Rs 248.6 lakh crore) by 2047-48, growing at a CAGR of 8.6 per cent from the current US$ US$164.7 billion (Rs 13.6 lakh crore), according to a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The report underscores that for Madhya Pradesh (MP) to achieve its ambitious growth targets, manufacturing and industrial expansion must take centre stage. While the agriculture sector currently contributes 43 per cent to MP’s economy, the share of manufacturing must rise from 7.2 per cent to 22.2 per cent by 2047 to sustain long-term growth.