Strategically located at the centre of India, Madhya Pradesh (MP), would become the country’s supply hub post the roll out of Goods & Services Tax (GST), Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday.
He was speaking at the two-day 5th Global Investors Summit (GIS) organised by the Madhya Pradesh Government here.
“Hopefully next year with the implementation of GST, when India would become one consolidated market, there would be a free flow of goods and services across the country. This seamless flow will necessarily involve efficient supply chain. And no state is geographically better located than MP,” Mr Jaitley said.
He said MP would become a hub of large number of companies which are involved in supply of goods and services from all directions. “They would prefer to transport the goods from the centre of India rather from all directions,” he said.
“Therefore MP which was historically the left out area at India’s centre after other states were carved out on linguistic lines, would become the supply hub for all four directions when India becomes one consolidated market,” the finance minister said.
MP which has been reporting over 10 per cent growth in the past few years is no more BIMARU as it has achieved all round growth in the past 13 years, Mr Jaitley said.
The acronym BIMARU was coined by economist Ashish Bose to give a distinct identity to poverty stricken states namely Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said “MP, the heart of India, is one of the fastest growing economies of the country. With our business friendly policies and skilled labour force, we aspire to be the growth pillar of Make in India,”
He said the focused area for investment include textile, IT/ITES, Pharmaceuticals, defence, renewable, automobile and engineering and agri/food processing sectors.
The summit was attended by over 4000 delegates from India and abroad. Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumarmangalam Birla said his group would invest Rs 20,000 crore in MP in various projects over the next few years.
Essar Group Chairman Shashi Ruia said his group would invest Rs 4500 crore.Anil Ambani, Chairman Reliance Group said his defence business would make sizeable investment and two sites have been identified. Sun Pharma chairman Dilip Shanghvi said that his company would invest to set up a global R&D centre in MP as well to expand the existing pharma product facility at Dewas.
Baba Ramdev of Patanjali who has now emerged as a major investor in different states, said he would set up large food processing unit and start other businesses in the state to provide employment to 10,000 people and to boost farmers’ income.
British minister Alok Sharma who leads a delegation from United Kingdom said, “MP is one of the fastest growing states in India. This summit will allow us to build and strengthen business links in thriving areas like tourism, rural development, manufacturing and industrial sectors.”
A number of investors from Korea, UAE, Japan and Singapore have shown interest to invest officials said.
(This correspondent is visiting Indore at the invitation of MP Govt.)
