Tale of 2 states: Maharashtra & Gujarat

Chief ministers promise ease of doing business and highlight industry-friendly policies

The Make in India Week has become a platform for two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states to jostle for the number one destination in India for investor funds.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had on Monday claimed his state was number one in attracting domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI). On Tuesday, it was the turn of Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel to claim that her state was undisputedly the top investment destination.

Both states have been aggressively projecting their pre-eminence in industrialisation and investments.

Fadnavis and his officials had substantiated their arguments with a recent study of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India (Assocham) that declared Maharashtra number one in attracting funds. Patel made her claims based on a recent report by the World Bank and various departments of the central government.

Both assured investors a red carpet welcome and removal of red tape in the spirit of cooperative and competitive federalism, which was coined by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Fadnavis and Patel had in their respective speeches also said India can achieve double-digit annual growth only if Maharashtra and Gujarat each clocked 14 per cent yearly rise in their gross state domestic product (GSDP). Maharashtra’s GSDP grew at a compound annual growth rate of 11.1 per cent between 2004-05 and 2014-15, while Gujarat’s GSDP was 12.1 per cent during the same period.

Further, Maharashtra, in a bid to further attract investments, had recently brought down the number of permissions and approvals to start a business to 37 from the earlier 76. Gujarat had claimed to be a state where project clearances take place in a hassle-free and quick manner.

Maharashtra has already announced a new industrial policy and separate policies for retail, ports and electronics sectors. Besides, the government also announced a policy and concessions to encourage entrepreneurship among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It had also released a policy for single-window clearance.

Gujarat already had in place policies for electronics, information technology, textiles, plastics, film production and tourism sectors. The government will soon issue a mega industrial policy and policies for the micro, small and medium enterprises, agriculture and food processing and defence manufacturing sectors.

Both states are determined to cover the 25 sectors covered under the Make in India initiative. The Gujarat government has accorded industry status to the tourism sector.  To promote investments in micro and cottage industries, the Gujarat government had introduced a one-village, one-product scheme and assured 24-hour uninterrupted power supply.

The Gujarat CM said on Tuesday 33 per cent of the total memorandums of understanding signed during the Vibrant Gujarat 2015 summit have been implemented. She informed the gathering that a committee headed by her conducts regular reviews, so that project implementation was expedited. The state had received Rs 65,402-crore investment intentions in 2015, which is 21 per cent of the total investment received in the country. Additionally, Patel announced that a Gujarat desk would be opened in New York, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Dubai and Wonju to attract investments from the state’s diaspora.