Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday pitched the state as a favourable destination for business and investment, saying that the state offered investment-friendly policies, an excellent road infrastructure, skilled labour and good law and order situation
“The state GDP has increased by ₹3 lakh crore in three years in Rajasthan. The total state GDP today stands at ₹12 lakh crore. The state’s happiness index has also increased, making it a suitable destination for investment and business,” Gehlot said at the inaugural session of the two-day Investment Summit that saw the Adani Group pledge ₹60,000 crore investment.
Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani said the group expected to invest ₹60,000 crore in Rajasthan over the next five to seven years and create more than 40,000 direct and indirect jobs. He also committed to contributing to the construction of two medical colleges and a cricket stadium in Udaipur.
Nearly 3,000 delegates from India and abroad are participating in the summit which has the theme of ‘Committed-Delivered’, the government said.
The government said it has signed 4,192 Memorandum of Understanding and Letters of Intent totalling ₹10.44 lakh crore during road shows at international, national and state levels from November 2021 to September 2022 before the summit. No new MoU/LoI were signed during the summit.
The chief minister said before the summit, about ₹11 lakh crore MoUs were signed by the state government with investors, which will help generate jobs for about 10 lakh people. He said that for the first time, MoUs have been signed on priority basis on the theme of “Committed and Delivered”.
Gehlot asked Vedanta’s Anil Agarwal to invest in the state. “If there is a fight between Maharashtra and Gujarat for the one lakh crore semiconductor industry, then you should set up a semiconductor chip industry in Rajasthan.”
The chief minister also asked Adani, who he referred to as Adani bhai, for becoming the second richest person in the world.
Adani responded to Gehlot’s gesture, showering praises on the Rajasthan government and calling its schemes, “path breaking”.
Adani said Adani Group has invested over ₹35,000 crore across multiple industrial sectors in Rajasthan. “Continuing our investment in the renewable business, another 10,000 MW with an investment of ₹50,000 crore is under implementation,” Adani said.
“This will be commissioned progressively over the next five years. In this context, just a week ago, we also achieved commercial operations of the world’s largest wind-solar hybrid power plant. It’s here in Rajasthan,” Adani added.
“Combining all ongoing and future investments, we anticipate investing an additional ₹65,000 crore in Rajasthan over the next five to seven years and creating over 40,000 direct and indirect jobs,” the industrialist said at the summit.
“Along with this,” Adani later told reporters, “while speaking to CM Gehlot, two proposals were approved. One for contributing for two medical colleges, particularly where there are no medical colleges and the other for cricket stadium in Udaipur,” he said
After the inauguration, Gehlot’s son and Rajasthan Cricket Association president Vaibhav Gehlot thanked Adani for the stadium in Udaipur and Sudhir Mehta for developing the cricket academy. “I thank them for the stadium in Udaipur and for the academy,” he said.
Vedanta Group chairman Anil Agarwal spoke about the abundance of natural resources in Rajasthan “Be it oil or gas, I believe that the state can compete with the Middle East.” He added that the state government is supportive to industries. Agarwal also said they will make Jaipur stadium with world class facilities like Gujarat.
Tata Power also announced plans to expand its business footprint and develop upto 8000 MW of utility scale projects, 1000 MW of solar rooftop, and installing 1,50,000 solar pumps in next five years in Rajasthan.
“Rajasthan is an important state for Tata Power’s renewable business. The company presently has a portfolio of 4939 MWp. Till date, Tata Power has commissioned 2,066 MW in Rajasthan and around 2,873 MW capacity of solar projects under construction in the State and will be completed in next 12-24 months,” said Praveer Sinha, CEO and MD, Tata power.
