Chavan, Mungantiwar spar over Maharashtra's startup ranking

Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan Monday Monday attacked the Maharashtra government over the state not figuring among top 15 states in the startup ranking declared by Centre for the country, attributing the faring to the Devendra Fadnavis dispensation's "indifference".

Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar was quick to hit back, saying Chavan made the comments without fully understanding the issue and said someone who had been a chief minister should not defame the state.

Mungantiwar sought to underscore Maharashtra was home to highest number of startups (2,787) in the country.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), in its report released on December 20, has ranked Gujarat first among states in startups.

"The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) on December 20 came out with a report on implementation of policy meant for startups (for 2018).

"Maharashtra could not figure even among top 15 states, which is disappointing," Chavan told reporters here.

He said the report covers 27 states and 3 Union Territories in the country.

"The (state) industries department is responsible for it (the ranking). But we cannot blame the industries department alone...the chief minister also is responsible for it...the government is being indifferent," Chavan added.

Chavan said the rankings have proved as "hollow and untrue" the announcement of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis about making Maharashtra "Startup Capital" of the country.

The ex-chief minister accused the BJP-led government in the state of being late in declaring its policy on early stage ventures (announced at the beginning of 2018).

Chavan said the BJP-led government was seeking credit for the schemes like 'Make in Maharashtra' and 'Magnetic Maharashtra', but was allegedly not paying attention to ground realities.

The former Union minister rued that Maharashtra, "which was once number one in industries" will now have to learn lessons from Gujarat when it comes to startups.

"The state's performance has consistently fallen in ease of doing business category too. In 2015, Maharashtra was ranked 8th, in 2016 it was on 10th position, in 2017 it slipped to 11 and now plunged to 13 in 2018," he said.

"Lack of long-term policies, bickering between ruling parties have resulted in government neglecting industries in the state and that is resulting in growing unemployment," the Congress leader charged.

Launching a counter attack, Mungantiwar said someone who had been a chief minister should not defame the state.

"He has been addressing press conferences based on information that's convenient to him, without fully understanding the issue...someone who had worked as a minister in the PMO should not interpret convenient meanings," said Mungantiwar, attacking Chavan, in a statement.

The BJP minister said the report itself has stated that Maharashtra is home to the highest number of startups in the country.

He said Maharashtra came out with its startups policy in February 2018 and observed that the DIPP evaluated the policy till May 2018.

Mungantiwar said Maharashtra was put in "emerging" state for startups category given it the evaluation happened over only few months.

"Maharashtra indeed is the startup capital being home to highest number of startups. Hence, (Chavan) should not mislead highlighting statistics conveniently," he said.

Mungantiwar also trashed Chavan's claims on ease of doing business index and said Maharashtra attracted investment the most in the country.

He said Maharashtra was leading when it came to industrial growth rate in the country.