MUMBAI: In 2016, the highprofile Make in India event in the city led to mega-deals with the private sector that promised investments of Rs 8 lakh crore in the state. Now, three-and-a-half years later, projects with investments worth 1.02 lakh crore, or 12.5% of the target, have been implemented. These have generated 3.5 lakh jobs, or 11.6% of the 30 lakh target, shows the latest data.
Of these, 93% were in the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sector. As a result, although the number of projects realised is high, the investments generated were not as large. Officials said the megaprojects that will generate the most jobs have a longer gestation period of 5-8 years. The state government says the economic downturn has not affected the conversion rate. “This is the highest ratio of MoU conversion in the country. I am sure that many more will be converted in the coming days as they are at various stages of implementation,” said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. The Opposition alleges that the government put old projects into the Make in India category to boost the conversion rate. “Projects announced much earlier were shown as Make in India projects. Many were not manufacturing projects and did not generate jobs,” said NCP city chief Nawab Malik. While several projects have begun production, like a Rs 1,400 crore Raymond plant in Amravati, the largest MoU for the state, the Rs 60,000 crore deal with Vedanta grouplinked Twin Star Display Technologies, has not taken off yet. The MoU was signed in the presence of PM Narendra Modi at the Make in India inaugural. The Twin Star project, which aimed to set up India’s first LCD manufacturing facility, was to be located in Nagpur. It was stuck for several years in trying to get an MSIPS (modified special incentive package) through the Centre to attract investments in the electronics manufacturing space. “We are in the process of inviting Twin Star,” said state industries minister Subhash Desai. Industry leaders are optimistic. “There are investments taking place in India across a variety of sectors driven mainly by infrastructure spending and in the service economy. What we need is a pick-up in consumption. At the moment there is excess capacity. And only consumer demand can get the investment cycle going.
Once the financial sector is fixed and rural consumption picks up, I expect there will be more growth and consequently more investments,” said Harsh Goenka, chairman, RPG Enterprises. “For the rate of implementation one would rather say that the higher the better. But in economics, context is often more important,” said Dr Sachidanand Shukla, chief economist, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.