JHARKHAND GLOBAL INVESTORS SUM. In 2 days, State promised ₹3 lakh crore investments

Jharkhand has secured investment commitments worth over ₹3 lakh crore, with 210 MoUs signed, in the two-day-long Momentum Jharkhand Global Investors Summit that ended on Friday.

Around ₹1 lakh crore of investment commitments — including a ₹50,000-crore investment proposal from the Centre, for roads and national highways — was secured on the inaugural day.

“Nearly 2.1 lakh people will get direct employment, while the indirect employment generation will be 3.9 lakh,” said Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Friday.

The major global investors include a Chinese company, The Milky Way, that has committed to ₹67,000 crore to develop urban infrastructure; and a Swedish company, Coalo Global, committing ₹17,300 crore in affordable housing and urban infrastructure.

Jharkhand will also be the first State in the country to make card-swipe or point-of-sale machines. A Chinese company will set up the facility at an estimated cost of ₹12,00 crore. Amongst Indian corporates, Adani Enterprises committed ₹50,000 crore across sectors such as power, fertilisers and so on, and JSW Steel committed ₹35,000 crore in power.

Microsoft India also signed an MoU to work on Cloud computing.

Das promised “time-bound” materialisation of investment proposals. “Work on 172 MoUs promising approximately ₹90,000 crore of investment will begin within a year. And these projects will start commercial production within two years from the beginning of construction.” The rest ₹2.1 lakh -crore worth proposals are long-term in nature and will materialise over 5-10 years. “We will deliver as promised. Improving standards of living of the people is our focus,” the Chief Minister said.

Das also maintained that the focus of the investor summit was “not just pushing the State as a manufacturing hub because of its rich mineral resources.”

“Investments have come in for other sectors too, such as agriculture, IT, tourism, etc.”

A total of 121 proposals, committing around ₹2.1 lakh crore in investment, were received by the State’s Industry, and Mines and Geology Departments.

The IT and E-gov Department received 30 proposals and an investment commitment of ₹8,500 crore. The Department of Urban Development and Housing secured investment commitments worth ₹38,320 crore through 17 proposals. The Energy Department received ₹37,150 crore worth of proposals.

Rolling out the red carpet for industries, including small and medium ones, Das also sought to allay investors’ fears about availability of land.

“Land is amply available and there are no issues with acquisition,” he said, adding the investments in the State will be backed by the government. “Your investment is safe with us. We are approachable 24x7.”

A special monthly review meeting between investors and bureaucrats, headed by the Chief Minister himself, will be organised to iron out problems and ensure faster project implementation.

Four Union ministers — Ravi Shankar Prasad (Telecom), Nirmala Sitharaman (Commerce), Rajiv Pratap Rudy (Skill Development) and Sudarshan Bhagat (Agriculture) — pitched for Jharkhand as a favourable investment destination.

Prasad applauded the State’s digital drive with majority of its population having Aadhaar cards and biometric authentication for PDS. Sitharam found it laudable that the State has consistently been among the top few in terms of ease-of-doing-business.

Bhagat found Jharkhand a potential investment destination for the food processing industry.

This was the first-ever investment summit organised by Jharkhand. A total of 11,000 delegates, including 600 foreign ones, attended the conference.

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