Expressions of caution in MP

Madhya Pradesh's Global Investor Summit may have ended on a high note after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address but it is worth noting that the state bureaucracy has opted not to sign any Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with prospective investors. Instead, it has invited Expressions of Intent through its website. It's a classic case of once bitten, twice shy, officials explain. In the last Global Investor Summit, the state had signed MoUs worth over Rs 200,000 crore, but just about half that materialised as investment on the ground. The official explanation for this discrepancy was the gloomy economic sentiment that pervaded the country at the time but the real reasons could well be different.