Chief ministers turn CEOs, woo NRIs to invest in their states

 Chief Ministers of four states and a union territory donned the role of chief executive officers (CEOs) on the second day of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) on Sunday, wooing  NRIs to invest in their respective states. They offered NRIs sops and relaxation in norms to do business with ease.

Chief ministers of Karnataka, Assam, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Puducherry got down the business and displayed competition to woo investments.

Highlighting the “advantages” Karnataka has, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the state has a unique and powerful combination of engaged citizens, hi-technology and outstanding talent supported by a well-oiled governance machinery.

Siddaramaiah told the audience the state, especially Bengaluru, has Indian Institute of Science and Indian Institute of Management and headquarters of Isro, DRDO and many IT-BT companies.

He said Mangalyaan - the Mars Orbiter Mission – India’s first interplanetary mission and, “Chandrayaan” – the lunar probe mission were both conceived and delivered from here. “As we speak, scientists and engineers in the state are working on Mangalyaan-2 and Chandrayaan-2,” he added.

“Karnataka is the fountainhead of global research and development (R&D)– more than 400 multi-national companies have their global R&D centres here - perhaps the largest concentration of such centres anywhere in the world,” said Siddaramaiah. He said that some of India’s best known startups such as Flipkart, Ola, Big Basket, Quikr, In Mobi are emerging from Bengaluru.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh tried to sell hard the advantage of investing in his new state. He said his state is mineral rich and has surplus power. He added that the new capital coming up in the state is the finest in the world.

In his brief address, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the 50% of the FDI India received recently had come to Maharashtra, which shows how investment-friendly his state is. He informed the audience about the investment made by Maharashtra to build infrastructure.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said his state has a vibrant industrial base with 70 industrial infrastructure hubs including growth centres, export processing industrial parks, food parks, bamboo park, plastic park, integrated industrial infrastructure centre, industrial estates, biotech park and IT park. He told the gathering about the various initiatives taken by his government to create an atmosphere conducive for investment.

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said that the advantage the union territory has is its size, which makes its easy for the government to concentrate on administration and reach out to the people in no time. He said the long coastline, the accommodative  nature of the citizens, knowledge of French, English, besides Tamil make the state a good investment destination.