 "Minister of State for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal and Haryana Chief Minster Manohar Lal Khattar at 'Happening Haryana Global investors summit 2016' in Gurgaon")
Haryana's maiden investor summit - Happening Haryana - which took place under the shadow of last month's violent protests by Jats, managed investment commitments worth Rs 5.84 lakh crore from companies as diverse as IKEA, Indiabulls and Patanjali.
The true spirit of 'competitive federalism' was witnessed on the outskirts of Delhi with the state managing to get 15 Union ministers during the two-day event along with who's who of Corporate India.
While the giants like Indra Nooyi, Adi Godrej, and N R Narayana Murthy did not explicitly announce any fresh investment in Haryana, their presence not only boosted the profile of the summit but also powered some of the best sessions on key sectors. While as many as 20 corporate leaders participated in the inaugural session on Monday, four corporate honchos shared the dais at the valedictory session on Tuesday. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal said the next such summit would take place in 2018.
A note of caution, however, came from Rao Inderjit Singh, minister of state for defence, who said the investment would mean nothing if not accompanied by employment for the locals. "Those who have been denied land should get a share in jobs," he said, while pressing the state government for better planning of water use by industry.
The biggest investment in the state is coming from Dalian Wanda Group of Wang Jianlin, the richest Asian, who has committed to invest $10 billion (about Rs 60,000 crore) in an industrial park at Kharkhoda, near Sonipat. The MoU for this was concluded before the summit earlier this year. Another big announcement came from Indiabulls group - Indiabulls Housing Finance, along with Indiabulls Real Estate, would invest Rs 25,000-crore in Haryana over the next seven years by directly lending through home loans as well as indirectly lending to the developers of various projects, particularly in the affordable housing segment. On Monday, DLF had announced Rs 20,000-crore investment in the state while Bharti Enterprises said it would invest Rs 2,000 crore in electronics, IT and ITeS sectors. IKEA and Walmart committed to invest Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 500 crore, respectively.
Baba Ramdev said Patanjali Ayurved would invest Rs 5,000 crore in Haryana to set up a university and an international health centre. Adding colour to the valedictory session of the event, Ramdev spoke on behalf of the state government and assured the industry on the law and order front. "I take moral responsibility for it," he said, while offering his free service for motivational discourse and yoga lessons for corporates in the state to keep away the thought of strikes among their employees.
Union ministers, too, committed investments in the state. On Monday, railway minister Suresh Prabhu announced setting up of a rail coach factory. Nitin Gadkari, minister of road transport and highways, said Rs 33,000 crore would be spent on national highways in the state. He announced an elaborate plan to decongest the Delhi-Gurgaon stretch of NH-8 through construction of four flyovers, two bypasses and a tunnel at Dhaula Kuan. Besides, Haryana would have its first waterways connecting to Wazirabad in Delhi soon, the minister said.
For the first time in India, the Delhi-Manesar stretch would get Metrino rapid transport system - a network of small, fully automatic, pods that travel independently, using overhead wires. The tender for the project would come out in three days and it would be awarded within months. The project is estimated to cost Rs 4,000 crore. "While Metrino will cost roughly Rs 50 a kilometre, Metro costs Rs 350 crore. It will be a cheaper mode of public transport," Gadkari said.
Some 37 MoUs involving an investment of Rs 1.28 lakh crore were signed during the event for investment in non-NCR regions of the state. Fifty-seven per cent of Haryana's area, which falls in the NCR, is more developed than the rest. "The signing of MoUs for non-NCR region shows the change in perception of the investors towards the backward, interior areas of the state," said Sudhir Rajpal, managing director of Haryana State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation.
