Davos investments: Maharashtra secures Rs 15.7 lakh crore, Telangana just Rs 1.78 lakh crore

Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy stresses that the State was not competing with Maharashtra but with global cities like New York. The investments however tell a different story

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy keeps stressing that Telangana was not competing with Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka but with global cities like New York, Tokyo, Dubai and Singapore.

But in contrast to the Chief Minister’s assertions, Telangana, which claims to have secured Rs 1.78 lakh crore investments, is way behind Maharashtra. At the World Economic Forum, Davos, the Maharashtra government announced that Rs 15.7 lakh crore worth MoUs were signed.

---

According to reports, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had met with the Executive Chairman of the Mittal Group Lakshmi Mittal at Davos. He also shared a recent announcement of Arcelor Mittal / Nippon Steel investing Rs 1.4 lakh crore for an integrated steel project at Anakapalle near Visakhapatnam.

More so, as Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said in the past MoUs signed by different companies at Davos were just the willingness of the management to invest in Telangana. The companies had to bid in tenders and secure projects and that nothing was binding on the State government, he had said.

Accordingly, more than announcements, the real challenge is in converting the agreements into investments and grounding the projects. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also stressed the same.

During an interview, the Maharashtra Chief Minister said that there was a difference between Maharashtra and other States in converting the announcements into investments.

“Other States get only about 35 per cent of the investments, while Maharashtra gets at least 65-70 per cent. At some summits, we have managed to secure investments up to 85 per cent,” Devendra Fadnavis was quoted as saying.

Similarly, Tamil Nadu Industries Minister TRS Rajaa while speaking at Davos said the State had received good interest, especially from the Middle East and European countries.

Tamil Nadu had attracted investments worth over Rs 10 lakh crore in the last three years and Rajaa aimed at achieving a conversion rate of at least 75 percent of MoUs into actual investments.

Now, this throws light on the Telangana government’s claims of securing Rs 40,232 crore in the last edition of the Davos summit. Fourteen companies had evinced interest and signed agreements for executing 18 different projects.

While, at the ground level things present a different scenario, officials claim that 10 projects are in various stages and progressing fast and seven were in the initial stages.