CMs pull out all stops to woo investors

The concluding day of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2015 here saw nine chief ministers competing with each others to woo expat Indians to invest in their states.

If Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal boasted of his government’s “single window” facility to clear project proposals, Shivraj Singh Chauhan of Madhya Pradesh claimed to have opened a “single door” and N Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh promised to set up a “single desk” to facilitate investors.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis sought to outsmart others by “opening up his heart” to welcome investments from expat Indians to his state.

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a clarion call to Indian diaspora to avail the opportunities available in abundance in India, it was the turn of the chief ministers to hard-sell their states as favourable investment destinations.

The chief ministers of all the six states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party — Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh — turned up at the Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar to address the conclave of the expat Indians. So did the chief ministers of Punjab and Andhra Pradesh, the two states ruled by BJP allies Akali Dal and Telugu Desam Party, respectively.

Oomen Chandy of Kerala was the only chief minister to attend the session representing a state, not ruled by the BJP.

“As a ‘Federal Polity’, India offers a unique opportunity to all the states to pursue its agenda for development and governance with the active support from the Centre,” said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who chaired the session. “India today demands greater impetus to ‘cooperative federalism’ than ‘competitive federalism’. The Centre and the states need to work together in one direction to fulfill the dreams and aspirations of its people,” he added.

Badal lauded the Modi government’s “Make in India” campaign, but pitched for ‘Make in Punjab’, wooing expat Indians to invest in his state, particularly in the fields of Information Technology, bio-sciences, healthcare and development of cities and towns, apart from agro and food-processing industries, education and skills, electronics manufacturing, textiles and infrastructure development.

“We want to bring Punjab on the top in industrial production. We have introduced Single Window clearance facility and, in several places, even moved beyond to assign a ‘single person’, who will help getting clearances from all departments,” said the Chief Minister of Punjab.

“Parkash Singh Badalji may have spoken of single window clearances, but we don’t need any window in Madhya Pradesh. We have in fact made a single door policy,” said Chauhan. “I meet investors along with my officials every Monday and quick decisions are taken,”  he added.

Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Naidu promised to use computers to fast-track the process of clearing proposals. “We will introduce single desk for investors to help them have complete access to information online,” he added.