ProjectsToday

India's Largest Database on New Projects

State is No. 1 on investment charts, insists govt

August 19, 2008: THE Maharashtra government has contested the data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a survey of industrial progress in different states that shows Gujarat taking the lead in new projects.

The state has put out the findings of a study done by Project Today, a database of industrial investment across India and a division of Economic Research India, which claims that Maharashtra has retained its premier position in terms of number as well as size of total investment from 1999 to June 2008. The Project Today study came out in July.

The state has the largest investment share of Rs 3,53,451 crore in 4,706 projects in an all-India planned investment pie of Rs 34,25,428 crore in 25,399 projects, the Project Today says. This constitutes a 10.32% share in total investment across India, the study adds.

Interestingly, the research agency has projected Orissa, and not Gujarat or Andhra Pradesh, as closely following Maharashtra with an 8.48% share in 896 projects. Gujarat is third on this list, with an 8.19% share in planned investment in 1,185 projects.

The RBI report on state-wise distribution of projects and industrial investment in 2006-07 and 2007-08, however, puts Gujarat ahead of Maharashtra, both in terms of share in all-India investment and cost of projects involved. In 2006-07, Gujarat attracted an investment of Rs 73,170 crore in 86 projects, which constituted a substantial 25.8% share in aggregate national investment in that fiscal. This fiscal, the figures for Maharashtra were pegged at 186 projects, involving investment of Rs 24,330 crore forming an 8.6% share.

For the previous financial year, too, the RBI report puts Gujarat ahead of Maharashtra in terms of size of projects as well as the share in all-India investment. In 2007-08, Gujarat attracted 100 projects involving Rs 62,442 crore, which accounted for 22% of the total investment. Though Maharashtra bagged 149 projects during the same fiscal, the cost of projects was only Rs 36,202 crore, pushing the state's share in the total canvas to a mere 12.7%.

"We have no intention to dispute the RBI figures at all. In fact, the RBI data have their own relevance in some respects. All we want to say is that the number of projects that the RBI study tracks is very small compared to the quantum studied by Project Today," state principal secretary, industries, Aziz Khan, told ET. Mr Khan pointed out that Maharashtra's share in projects under implementation was the largest in the country for the past several years.

Published in Economic Times dated 19 August 2008