19.3.22

Maharashtra: MMR and Pune top stops for foreign investment

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Pune's industrial clusters continue to be the favoured destinations for foreign direct investment inflows to Maharashtra, industry minister Subhash Desai said.

In the last two years of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, of the 98 MoUs signed under Magnetic Maharashtra 2. 0 (June 2020 to December 2021), eight have been set aside for various reasons. Four have been set aside at the behest of the Union government (those that were signed with Chinese companies at the time of the Chinese incursion into Ladakh in 2020).

Desai said that around 50 companies have been allotted land so far and 15 have started construction. “The MMR and Pune continue to be favoured destinations for FDI (in the state) but investments are coming to Solapur, Nandurbar, Yavatmal, Nagpur and Dhule as well," he said. The Aurangabad Industrial City (Auric), part of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, he said, has even been appreciated by the Centre as being the best industrial city on the corridor.

According to the Economic Survey of Maharashtra, between June 2020 and December 2021, the state attracted investment proposals of Rs 1.9 lakh crore with expected employment generation of 3.3 lakh under the Magnetic Maharashtra campaign. There were 10,785 startups in the state at the end of October 2021.

However, FDI inflows into Maharashtra seem to have slowed down. According to the Economic Survey, in 2021-22 till September the state received only Rs 48,633 crore in inflows as against around Rs 1.2 lakh crore for the full year 2020-21. But this compares favourably with Gujarat that received only Rs 11,145 crore till September 2021, but unfavourably with Karnataka that received 1.02 lakh crore in the same period.

Desai said that at the Dubai World Expo conference 2020, the state signed 25 MoUs worth Rs 15,260 crore in sectors such as automobile and components, logistics, electric vehicles, textiles, data centres, pharmaceuticals, bio-fuels and energy, and the estimated employment is over 11,000.

No comments: