Joining the bandwagon of states that are going all out to rope in investors and industries to help the growth, the state of Jharkhand is seeking investments in 10 priority sectors like food processing, energy, automobile, IT-ITeS, tourism, infrastructure development, healthcare and education.
Two days ago, the state government, led by the chief minister Raghubar Das, who is also in charge of the Industries department, held its maiden meeting of Jharkhand Investment Promotion Board in Mumbai as a precursor to its investment promotion campaign. It was attended by Vedanta, Tata Steel, SAIL, Adani and Usha Martin among a number of leading companies.
"While we are very happy and enthusiastic about our accomplishment in instituting DIPP’s Business Reforms desirables, we call upon industry representatives to reflect on these systems in a frank and forthright manner, so that we can completely iron out discrepancies and make them more responsive, robust and long term. We aim to ace the systems compliance agenda and will also strive to bring the most promising investment proposals to Jharkhand. Investors are our partners in progress and this partnership, I believe, will be meaningful when it shapes up appropriately at the conception stage," Das said.
These efforts are directed to lay a strong foundation for the upcoming 'Global Investors Summit’ that is scheduled to be held on 16-17 February 2017 in Ranchi. According to the state government, the Summit is aiming to establish Jharkhand as a premier investment destination for both foreign as well as domestic investors.
It should be noted here that other states like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Haryana, West Bengal, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana among others have already tasted success by holding similar Global Investor summits in their respective states in the recent months.
According to the state government, Jharkhand has emerged as the fastest growing economy in Eastern India. Throughout the 15 month term-to-date of the state government, there has been no major law and order issue and in next 4 to 5 years Jharkhand will be a completely different state, the chief minister told the representatives of industries.
The Jharkhand government has also launched the maiden "Handbook for Shelf on Projects in the State of Jharkhand" – a comprehensive document containing details of the key investible projects in the State. The Handbook is meant to serve as a guiding document for prospective investors to comprehend the scope of opportunities in Jharkhand. It will assist investors in pursuing expansion plans by identifying various options for investments in Jharkhand and choosing appropriate ones based upon their areas of interest, expertise, scale, budget and vision.
During the JIPB meeting, Tom Albanese, Group CEO, Vedanta Resources emphasized the need for the State to drive its own technical capabilities in order to scale up through intelligent investment in research and development. He said the State should be proactive in participating in global mining conclaves to woo new investors. Rajesh Adani, MD, Adani Group, stressed the need for positive branding of the State which has been brought to such an unprecedented position by the decisive leadership of the Chief Minister. While T V Narendran, MD, Tata Steel said, that Make in India actually began in Jharkhand with Tata Group’s pioneering investments.
"The Government needs to now reach out aggressively to the capital equipment manufacturing sector from China, Japan and Germany for investments that would fuel growth of mineral rich Eastern India in general and Jharkhand in particular," Narendran said.
Several members present during JIPB were unanimous in their call to the Government and industry jointly building the perception of industry as a good force of sustainable development, while ensuring that industrialization, especially mining, is sustainable. The Government acknowledged challenges and reaffirmed its resolve to scale up road, rail connectivity and especially, air connectivity to boost Jharkhand’s position as a favoured investment destination. Rajbala Verma, Chief Secretary, Government of Jharkhand while acknowledging that there were many challenges the State faced, said that these challenges were opportunities for investors, and called on the members of the SIPB to be proactive brand ambassadors of the State, and jointly drive the campaign along with the State Government.
During the meeting with key industrialists, the Chief Secretary and Finance Secretary took the participants through the recent measures and the agenda for the coming six months. One by one, the concerns articulated by participants were either responded to or noted down for action.
BW Reporters
Ashish Sinha is an experienced business journalist who has covered FMCG, auto, infrastructure, tourism, telecom among several other beats. Ashish has keen interest in the regulatory scenario impacting different sectors. He writes on aviation, railways, post and telegraph, infrastructure, defence, media & entertainment, among a wide variety of other subjects.
