Maharashtra in second place, Chattisgarh third.
By R. Chandrasekaran
CHENNAI: There is every reason for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to feel proud of his claim of Gujarat as a model for industrial development. The state has cornered the largest industrial investment proposal share in the first five months of the current year.
Modi is a potential candidate for the prime ministership from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which also leads National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
It may not be surprising to the business community since the state occupied the top destination for investment proposals last year also. Chattisgarh and Maharashtra were the other two states to occupy the top three slots in 2012.
The chief minister has been taking credit for the development of Gujarat both industrially as well as economically and has expressed his intention of replicating it at the national level.
Gujarat has attracted about 25 percent of the total industrial investment proposals in the current year, until May. India could receive industrial investment proposals for Rs.2.2 trillion until May from over 1100 business groups based on the data from the ministry of commerce and industry.
Strangely, Maharashtra, which is considered as the financial hub of India, came in second. Significantly, 18 states could attract investment proposals of less than one percent only, thus indicating the different priorities among the states about industrialization.
Bihar, which is ruled by Modi’s bete-noire Nitish Kumar, could get only 0.45 percent of the total investment proposals as industrialization seems to face roadblocks. In West Bengal too, investment plans represented only 1.35 percent of the total proposals and is consistently witnessing a slide in investment chart. The state saw over 5 percent of investment plans in 2005 after which it has been a downtick.
Similarly, Odisha, which attracted 11.2 percent of investment proposals in 2012, could get only 3.19 percent until May this year.
However, the worst seems to be the North-Eastern States, where Nagaland could get nothing. Other states in the region too were not in a position to attract significant proposals as the investment proposals represented less than 0.6 percent in most of the states.
Chattisgarh, which is in east-central India, accounted for 13.39 percent of the investment proposals to become the third state to attract more investment plans that covered letter of intent, industrial entrepreneurs memorandum and direct industrial license.
To contact the author, email to rchandrasekaran@americanbazaaronline.com