Advantage Assam: Claims and Ground Realities

GUWAHATI: The State Government held Advantage Assam costing around Rs 30 crore to woo investors, including foreign investors. The Assam government also claimed to have elicited investment proposals amounting to around Rs 1 lakh crore from industrial tycoons, including proposals from abroad.

However, what is the ground reality? After eight months of the event, official sources put the amount of investment in Assam at around Rs 8,000 crore. Will the State Government let the people of the State know the actual amount of investments in various sectors so far after the event? Will the government also let the people of the State know as to what amount of investment and investment proposals were made in Assam before the mega event? In order to woo investors ministers and top bureaucrats of the State had to tour a number of countries. Investments are not picking up pace in the State. It seems, it is enough an indication that the ministers and bureaucrats could not woo prospective investors. Let them answer to the public now.

On the other hand, an IANS report from Odisha says that the Odisha government has secured investment proposals worth over Rs 3,900 crore in the electronics manufacturing, telecommunications and Information Technology (IT) sectors during the ongoing investors’ summit.”Total investment proposals were of the order of Rs 3,900 crore from six companies,” Odisha Electronics and Information Technology Minister Chandra Sarathi Behera told reporters in Odisha at the second edition of the ‘Make in Odisha Conclave’.

While Reliance Jio committed Rs 3,000 crore, the rest came from five entities representing electronics manufacturing, a state official said.

“Reliance’s proposal is expected to materialize before the next edition of the conclave and 80 per cent of the other investment proposals would likely be acted upon in two years,” the official said. The State is witnessing a 15 per cent year-on-year growth in Information Technology, and looking at exports of Rs 4,000 crore. The state has a low attrition rate in the country, state Electronics and IT Department’s Principal Secretary C.J. Venugopal said.

According to the Minister, the government has decided to put aside Rs 1,000 crore in the budget every year to support IT growth.

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