The Maharashtra government organised the ‘Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0’ event in June 2020. The objective was to attract investments and generate employment in the State. According to the State government data, from June 2020 to December 2022, the State signed 124 MoUs worth ₹2,74,202 crore of investments that is expected to generate employment of about 4.27 lakh. Interestingly, the share of investments from renewable energy, information technology and steel manufacturing sectors is about 70 per cent of the total proposed investment.

In the World Economic Forum’s 53rd annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, the State signed 19 MoUs in hi-tech and infrastructure, energy, IT/fintech/ data centres, steel manufacturing, and agro and food processing sectors which have the potential to bring in investments worth ₹1.37 lakh crore and creating over one lakh employment opportunities.

The State has been implementing the mega policy since 2005, and up to September 2022 approvals have been given to 738 mega projects with proposed investment of ₹6,11,271 crore and expected employment of 6.72 lakh. Eligibility certificates have been issued to 256 projects with an investment of ₹1,35,972 crore and expected employment of about 1.76 lakh. 

Projects relocating to Gujarat

The State government is facing charges by Opposition parties that all major projects planned in Maharashtra were taken away by Gujarat with the blessings of the Union government. The BJP and Shiv Sena faction government, led by Eknath Shinde, has repeatedly countered these allegations. 

Recently, Foxconn made an announcement of its withdrawal from the chip-making joint venture with Vedanta. The project was planned to be established near Pune but was relocated to Gujarat in September last year. Now, the State government plans to table a white paper on this issue, explaining why the project was relocated to Gujarat.

$1 trillion economy

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Economic Advisory Council headed by Tata group chairman N Chandrasekaran submitted its report to the State government on Wednesday. The report focuses on the strategies to lead Maharashtra into becoming a $1 trillion economy over five years.

The government had set up the council in February this year with a mandate to submit the report within three months from the date of its first meeting. While commenting on the report, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that the report has given a roadmap on how to grow key sectors, including manufacturing, IT and real estate.

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