Poll-bound Gujarat, with ‘investment intentions’ worth ₹65,741 crore obtained during the period January-September this year, is behind the national topper Karnataka that bagged ‘investment intentions’ worth ₹147,625 crore in the period.
Karnataka, with investment intentions of ₹154,173 crore had last year (January-December) wrested the numero uno spot from Gujarat that got investment proposals of ₹56,156 crore. In 2015, Gujarat was the state with the maximum ‘investment intentions’ in value terms with ₹64,733 crore, while Karnataka was only the fourth with ₹31,668 crore.
The Centre maintains a State-wise break-up of ‘investment intentions’ in terms of Industrial Entrepreneur Memoranda filed for de-licensed sectors, Direct Industrial Licences granted and Letters of Intent issued. This is in addition to coordinating efforts to rank states on implementation of business reforms as part of the ‘cooperative and competitive federalism’ approach. A Gujarat government official handling investment facilitation, told The Hindu on condition of anonymity that the State, which holds the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit in January every year, follows it up with minor events in India and abroad to attract investments from foreign and domestic investors.
‘Investments expected’
The official said the State government was expecting some mega investment proposals before the year-end from Japanese, South Korean, French and German investors, which could help it either close the gap with Karnataka or even overtake it. “We have now adopted a country-specific approach, including roadshows, to attract greater foreign investments, and the response from them [foreign investors] has been encouraging,” the official said.
Other States leading in ‘investment intentions’ during January-September 2017 were Maharashtra (₹25,018 crore), Andhra Pradesh (₹24,031 crore), Jharkhand (₹13,002 crore), Telangana (₹12,567 crore) and Uttar Pradesh (₹9,443).
India received investment proposals of ₹332,266 crore till September this year. In all of 2016, the country had received intentions worth ₹414,086 crore, while it received only ₹311,031 crore in 2015.
A state-wise assessment of implementation of the 340 reform recommendations in 2016 had seen Gujarat ranked third behind Andhra Pradesh and Telengana, while Karnataka was 13th in the list. The business reforms action plan in 2017 includes 405 reform recommendations, and the latest implementation scorecard shows Telengana topping the list, followed by Haryana and West Bengal, while Karnataka is eighth and Gujarat ninth. Since the scorecard is dynamic, these ranks can obviously change due to intense competition between states.
