In a short span of six months in power, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is emerging as the favourite choice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when it comes to bilateral tours seeking investment and showcasing the NDA government’s flagship Make in India programme.
In January, in his first foreign trip, Mr. Fadnavis was handpicked by Mr. Modi to attend the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switerland, where the young leader held important talks with multinational giants on attracting investment to his State. He was part of the India delegation lead by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
This was followed by a trip to Germany, where in April Mr. Fadnavis accompanied Mr. Modi to the Hannover Trade Fair.
Cancels Japan visit
Now, Mr. Fadnavis is scheduled to accompany Mr. Modi to China next week. In China, Mr. Fadnavis will be accompanied by the Chief Ministers of Gujarat and Karnataka, Anandiben Patel and Siddaramaiah respectively. The significance of Mr. Fadnavis’ participation can be gauged from the fact that he had to cancel a scheduled trip to Japan, also scheduled around the same time, to adhere to the Prime Minister’s request.
The second youngest CM in the State’s history, Mr. Fadnavis has laid stress on attracting foreign investment towards his State. His own version of Make in India, Make in Maharashtra, has been highly publicised during his visits abroad.
Just back from a four-day tour of Israel, his third foreign trip, Mr. Fadnavis pitched for more collaboration between his State and the West Asian country on Smart Cities and state-of-the-art farm technology, in a bid to address the agrarian crisis in Maharashtra.
In Tel Aviv, Mr. Fadnavis, who has tried to hard sell Mumbai as a global financial, commercial and entertainment destination, also participated in the three-day Agritech Israel 2015, one of the world’s most important exhibitions in the field of agricultural technologies.
