Jharkhand has failed to attract investors: Assocham

The mineral-rich state of Jharkhand has failed to attract both domestic and global investors as the investments attracted by the state have declined continuously since 2010-11 till the last fiscal year of 2015-16, a study by Assocham said on Thursday.

Though Jharkhand received an overall score of 63.09 percent and was ranked third amid states in terms of "Ease of Doing Business", Assocham pointed out that the state needs to overcome a number of hurdles related to infrastructure development for realising its true growth potential.

With investments worth over Rs.6 lakh crore, Jharkhand accounted for about four percent share in the total outstanding investments worth about Rs.170 lakh crore attracted by both public and private sectors from domestic and foreign sources as of FY2015-16, noted the study.

Manufacturing sector accounts for almost half of the total investments attracted by Jharkhand followed by electricity (38 percent), mining (six percent), non-financial services (five percent) and irrigation (one percent).

Private sector accounts for about 67 percent of the total investments attracted by Jharkhand, while the state's share works out to be 2.3 percent of total outstanding investments undertaken by public sector across India.

Services sector accounted for lion's share of over 41 percent in terms of job openings in Jharkhand in Q4 FY16 followed by manufacturing (23.2 percent), ITEs (13.4 percent), banking financial services & insurance (12.0 percent) and construction & real estate (7.3 percent).

"With a view to cultivate a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, the state government should set up a 'Jharkhand entrepreneurship mission,' on the public-private partnership (PPP) model thereby facilitating 50 rural business and convenience hubs to provide services and facilities to both rural industries and households," suggested an Assocham study titled 'Revitalising Jharkhand Economy'.

--IANS

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