Kamal Nath on a charm offensive to woo investors
When the investors’ summit was announced in Madhya Pradesh (MP) a few months ago, people were wondering whether it was the right time to have such an event. A slump in growth and declining economic activities across sectors portended that it would be difficult to attract investment at this juncture. But Chief Minister Kamal Nath made it clear from the beginning that he did not believe in figures and signing memoranda of understanding but in creating an atmosphere favourable for investment. Building trust between the state machinery and the investors was his priority.
Personal equations at work
It is Nath’s persona that is bringing investors to the state. All at the summit praised him. Some remembered their old association with Nath and others said they trusted his leadership and understanding of industry issues. Nath gave the example of Tiruppur, which is a leading textile hub. He said he had helped industrialists there when he was textiles minister and the city’s industrialists were ready to invest in MP.
Godrej group Chairman Adi Godrej said: “When I was invited to this event, I asked our heads of businesses to let me know if there are points I should make to the chief minister and I got an answer — ‘no points at all’!”
N Srinivasan, vice-chairman and MD of India Cements, said his firm was investing in MP. He also said he was embarrassed at not being able to cope with the fast pace the state government was moving at.
A low-cost affair
MP has a long history of investment summits. The previous governments used to organise them with fanfare. Another noticeable thing is the low cost of the summit. According to sources, the previous summits of 2012, 2014, and 2016 cost ~70-80 crore each. But this came at about ~30 crore. According to officials, unlike the past, this time the government has asked the guests to bear the cost of their travel and stay in Indore. Protecting the locals
During the announcements, Nath spoke carefully. He said: “When states like Kerala and West Bengal can make their local languages compulsory for jobs, youths from north India are automatically disqualified because they don’t know Malayalam or Bengali. If we want to protects jobs for our youths, what’s wrong in it?” He announced the state government would push for legislation so that companies operating in the state would have to take in 70 per cent of their employees locally.
Many doubted the feasibility of this quota but Nath said states like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and West Bengal had secured a high quota of jobs from investors.
Political analyst Saji Thomas says this is Nath’s tactic to control the growing anger of youths.
No slowdown in MP
Nath said MP was not affected by the slowdown in the Indian economy. He said investment sentiment in the state was high, and, in support of this, gave the example of vehicle sales growth of 4 per cent in MP.
Urban Planner and real estate industrialist Manoj Singh Meek said: “Steps like relaxing norms in realty and the focus on logistics have helped the infra sector.”
Announcements for industry Nath announced industry-friendly moves to attract investment in the state. For example, Nath said: “Any industrialist who has land in Madhya Pradesh does not need any government approval for starting a unit. He can start the unit with a self-declaration. The government will inspect it only after three years of commencement. The idea is to provide industry a hassle-free environment to work and grow in MP.” He listed many steps his government had taken to help industry.
Some of them are reduction in property guidelines to boost real estate, land pooling, and separate discoms for industrial units.
Some big names of India Inc were missing at the summit. Mukesh Ambani addressed the summit through web cast, and Gautam Adani sent his representative.