Amidst competition with Gujarat in attracting investments, the Maharashtra government, on Tuesday, inked MoUs with 25 companies across 15 sectors for an investment of Rs 61,000 crore under the Magnetic Maharashtra initiative. As reported by Free Press Journal, a diverse range of sectors, including pharmaceuticals, healthcare, biotechnology, food processing and FMCG as well as steel and automobiles, engineering and oil and gas, amongst others.
The list of companies include JSW, Bajaj Auto, Exide, Jubilant FoodWorks, Graviss, K Raheja Corp and Grand Handloom.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who was present at the MoU signing, said the state has attracted an investment of Rs 2 lakh crore in a year, of which Rs 1.12 lakh crore was during the pandemic. He said that the state has set an example in the country. “This also underlines the state’s positive domestic business sentiment, which is in line with the vision of a self-reliant India and thereby Maharashtra,’’ he noted.
Thackeray said the total potential employment generation from this effort is conservatively estimated at 2.5 lakh people. He reiterated the state’s belief in industries, sector diversity, indigenous capacities, future readiness and the executional prowess. “With this, Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0 bolsters the message that Maharashtra, the torch bearer of India’s growth, is ‘open for business’,” he viewed.
Industry Minister Subhash Desai said, coupled with the state’s robust FDI pipeline of an additional Rs 79,000 crore, the state is positioned to surpass its previous targets and cross Rs 2, 00, 000 crore in formal industrial investment intentions signed by the state.
“Previous engagements under Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0 in June 2020 saw investment commitments of about Rs 17,000 crore. This was complimented by a second such event in November 2020 where there was additional investment commitment of approximately Rs 35,000 crore. In addition, the state attracted investments of about Rs 14,000 crore through organic investments via their advanced single window system in the year 2020,’’ he added.
According to Desai, Maharashtra has been at the forefront of FDI inflows in India, attracting the largest share of approximately 30% of India’s cumulative Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows during April 2000 – 2020. The state’s journey has included an increase in FDI inflow from Rs 2,543 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 79,216 crore in 2019-20.
“The state launched key investment promotion recovery initiatives under Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0 such as Plug & Play Infrastructure, Maha Jobs, Maha Parwana, Investor First Program, Capacity Augmentation of MIDC land banks and Dedicated Country Desks. This has helped consolidate industrial growth and boost investor confidence, positioning the state to be one of the most favoured investment destinations of the country, thereby flourishing the industrial sector of the state,’’ he opined.
