WHEN CHIEF MINISTER Devendra Fadnavis landed in Switzerland in late January for the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos, Maharashtrians living there gave him a rousing welcome. It was a good omen; the team, led by Fadnavis and state Industries Minister Uday Samant, returned with investment MoUs worth Rs15.70 lakh crore, the highest so far by any Indian state.
The 61 MoUs, when implemented, will create more than 15 lakh jobs in the state. “Data is the new oil and Maharashtra will be India’s data capital,” Fadnavis told the media at Davos.
He said the national conversion rate of MoUs was 40 per cent, but it goes up to 65 per cent in Maharashtra. “About 95 per cent of the MoUs signed by the Eknath Shinde government have been implemented and the MoUs signed this year will be implemented in a similar manner. Our state will not look back now,” said Fadnavis.
The region-wise distribution of the Rs15.70 lakh crore investment is: Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Rs6 lakh crore; Vidarbha, Rs5 lakh crore; north Maharashtra, Rs30,000 crore; and the remaining to Marathwada, western Maharashtra and the Konkan region.
One of the biggest investors was the Sajjan Jindal-led JSW group, whose promise of 03 lakh crore to the Nagpur-Gadchiroli belt in Vidarbha is likely to generate close to 10,000 jobs. It will cover sectors like steel, renewable energy, electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, cement and infrastructure.
Fadnavis said the MoU was an important step in his government’s vision to develop Gadchiroli as the new steel city of India. “JSW’s continued commitment to Maharashtra, including their focus on electric vehicles and sustainability, is a clear testament to their confidence in our state’s potential,” said Fadnavis.
There was another big MoU signed with the Reliance group, worth Rs3.05 lakh crore, with focus on sectors such as new energy, retail, hospitality, green power and high-tech manufacturing. Fadnavis called the MoU, which is expected to create around three lakh jobs, a “groundbreaking moment”.
Reportedly, the first MoU signed at Davos was with Kalyani Group, for the tribal Gadchiroli district. The investment of Rs5,200 crore is planned for projects in defence manufacturing, steel production and electric vehicles, and will create 4,000 jobs.
The Maharashtra government also signed an $8.3 billion MoU with Amazon Web Services for its cloud infrastructure. “At AWS, we see tremendous potential for India’s digital economy to thrive for years to come with growing demand for cloud and artificial intelligence,” said David Zapolsky, senior vice president of public policy and general counsel at Amazon. He added that AWS was pleased to continue the collaboration with the Maharashtra government to democratise access to emerging technology.
Another company, Paras Defence and Space Technologies, signed an MoU worth Rs12,000 crore to build India’s first optics park in Maharashtra, which will aim to make India a leader in optical technology for sectors such as defence and space. Said its director Munjal Sharad Shah: “Our optics park will bridge technological gaps and create opportunities for knowledge exchange, innovation and growth across sectors.”
The Maharashtra government had focused on AI, too, and an agreement was signed with Google. “We are focusing on creating an AI city in Navi Mumbai,” said Fadnavis.
Not everyone is impressed, though. Supriya Sule, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) working president and MP, welcomed investment to Maharashtra, but said the point of going to Davos was to get foreign investment. “The investments that have come could have been signed by staying in Mumbai,” she told THE WEEK. “We have seen the photos of Sajjan Jindal and Amit Kalyani signing agreements; these could have been signed here as Mr Jindal stays a few minutes away from the chief minister’s residence and Kalyani lives in Pune.”
Sule also said that Maharashtra’s ranking had gone down in terms of ease of doing business. “The chief minister should think about this,” she said. “I personally feel that Davos has lost its charm; earlier, world leaders used to attend the World Economic Forum meet.”
The Congress, meanwhile, has demanded that Fadnavis issue a white paper on the status of investment proposals signed by him (in his first term) and those the Shinde government signed.
State Congress president Nana Patole said the people of Maharashtra should know the specific details of the MoUs, and added that, of the 61 signed, 51 were with Indian companies, 43 of them based in Maharashtra. “Only 10 companies are based abroad,” he said.
He gave the example of an MoU signed with PRYM Aerospace, run by Dhanashri Mandhani, in Jalna. “The MoU is for manufacturing 6,000 drones,” said Patole. “This company claims to have a factory spread over 10,000sqft. But, in reality, no such facility exists and the company only assembles parts of knocked-down drones imported from abroad.”
He also objected to MoUs signed with companies like Heineken and AB inBEV. “Does this government want Maharashtra to become a liquor state?” he asked.
Reacting to claims that deals were made mostly with Indian companies, Fadnavis said that CEOs from around the world come to Davos. “Many Indian companies have become global now and our delegation was able to discuss with foreign investors and partners of the companies,” he said. “Davos is the centre of international networking. As much as 95 per cent of the investment coming to Maharashtra is foreign, and the government will ensure that all MoUs signed will be implemented.”