Conducting brisk business at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his team inked MoUs worth around Rs 88,500 crore for various projects with a potential to create over 56,000 jobs, officials said on Tuesday.
Industry Minister Uday Samant, who is part of the CM’s entourage, said that in the first two days, the state government has signed agreements with several major global conglomerates and investors.
Present at the ceremonies were top officials like Harshdeep Kamble, Vipin Sharma, T. Krishna, Shreya Eren, Ashish Nawade and others.
The prospective investors include USA’s New Era Cleantech Solution’s Rs 20,000 crore coal gasification project (15,000 jobs) and Israel’s Rajuri Steels and Alloys subsidiary’s Rs 600 crore steel plant (1,000 jobs), both in Chandrapur.
MoUs were also signed with two UK companies — Varad Ferro Alloys will set up a Rs 1,520 crore steel project in Gadchiroli (2,000 jobs) and Rcube/Ark Data’s investment for a Rs 12,000 crore plant in Pune (1,200 jobs) — besides Portugal’s Elite Plast AutoSystems proposing to start a Rs 400 crore plastic automotive project in Pune (2,000 jobs).
Another big one will be GoGoRo Engineering and Badway Engineering’s Rs 20,000 crore investment projects with employment potential of 30,000 across the state.
Others include Mahindra Electric Vehicle Automobile Ltd’s investment of Rs 10,000 crore in Pune (3,000 jobs), Japan’s Nippon Telegraph & Telephones’s Rs 20,414 crore across the state (1,525 jobs).
These were preceded by proposals from Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Orenda India (Rs 16,000 crore), ICP Investments/Indus Capitals (Rs 16,000 crore), Greenko Energy Projects Pvt Ltd of Telangana (Rs 12,000 crore), Nipro Pharma Packaging India Pvt Ltd of Pune (Rs 1,650 crore) and Rukhi Agro Foods of Thane (Rs 250 crore).
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut said that if all these investments are indeed coming, it will be good for the state.
“However, let’s wait till the investments actually come and jobs are really created before we comment,” said a skeptical Raut, who had on Monday urged Shinde to visit Gujarat and get back projects of Maharashtra which had shifted there in 2022.
The MoUs pertain to greenfield projects like data centres, pharmaceuticals, logistics, chemicals, automobiles, electric vehicles, renewable energy and ESDM.
Among the most industrialised states in India, Maharashtra contributes 15 per cent to the national GDP and 16 per cent of the country’s industrial output.
The services sector accounts for much of the state’s economy, up to 62 per cent of the state GDP, followed by the manufacturing sector which contributes 20 per cent through major industries including automobiles, engineering, textiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, petrochemicals, food processing and IT/ITeS.
