RESURGENT RAJASTHAN Rajasthan gears up to nurture its parched...

RESURGENT RAJASTHAN

Rajasthan gears up to nurture its parched investment topography

Singapore, Japan and Australia are the focus countries and firms from these nations may feature prominently among those committing investments.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be inaugurating the Resurgent Rajasthan Partnership Summit on November 19 and finance minister Arun Jaitley will deliver the concluding address at the valedictory session on November 20. The Prime Minister is also expected to be present throughout the inaugural session when a large number of MoUs are expected to be signed between Rajasthan government and various Indian and foreign companies.

The two-day summit is being organised by the Government of Rajasthan in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Successful conduct of the summit, which will be held at Export Promotion Industrial Park, Sitapura, at Jaipur, is a priority area for Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje. Sources in the bureaucracy say that she has been personally monitoring preparations of the summit and her government is going all out to make the event a bigger success than similar events organised by other state governments, such as Gujarat and Punjab. Last Tuesday, Raje had chaired a day-long meeting to review the preparations.

Rajasthan government has identified 12 sectors to attract investment, which include infrastructure, tourism, IT & ITeS, defence manufacturing, textiles and healthcare. According to government sources, MoUs worth Rs 2,60,000 crore have already been agreed upon by the investors and they are expecting MoUs worth another Rs 40,000 crore by 15 November.
Earlier this month, Rajasthan government had signed 12 MoUs for the summit, with a cumulative investment of Rs 40,527 crore, in the mining, steel and cement sectors. These MoUs were signed with Central PSUs like SAIL, NLC, RINL, Hindustan Copper and FCI, and private sector companies like Reliance Cement, Hindustan Zinc, Jindal Saw, UltraTech Cement, Marwar Cement, Ojaswi Marble & Granite and Ambuja Cement.

Additionally, the state signed an MoU for a Rs 10,000 crore project for the planning and development of an inter-state transmission system for the evacuation of solar energy generated in the solar power parks in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer districts.

Singapore, Japan and Australia are the focus countries for the summit and companies from these three nations are expected to feature prominently among those committing investments. Special sessions have been earmarked for the investors of these countries.

Extensive use of technology is believed to be one of the highlights of the event. A Resurgent Rajasthan app for Android and Windows platforms was launched by Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari recently. A digital pledge for Resurgent Rajasthan, which will be administered to all participants, including the Prime Minister, is another first for an investor summit in India.