Rajasthan govt attracts investments worth over Rs 1,67,000 crore

The Rajasthan government, which is combating the challenges of the COVID pandemic, has been successful in attracting investments worth over Rs 1,67,000 crore. The major investments, cleared by the Board of Investments chaired by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, have come in the renewable energy sector as Rajasthan is a major hub for solar power.

Between March 2020 and March 2021, when the pandemic was at its peak, the state received investments worth Rs 12,000 crore under its “one stop shop” policy. These investments have come for 15 districts. The investments are in food processing, tourism, transport, auto component, textile, green energy, chemical, cement and stone value addition sectors.

The highest investment of Rs 5992.86 crores has been received for Jodhpur in the green energy sector, followed by Rs 3826.16 crores for Bikaner and Rs 1344.87 crores for the desert district of Jaisalmer in the green energy sector.

The private sector plays a key role in economic development and job creation of a state. With these investments, nearly 40,000 new jobs will be added in the state. Out of these investments, renewable energy sector alone will provide 90 per cent of these jobs and that too in the barren land areas of the state, which have non-agricultural land. These districts include Jaisalmer, Jalore and Barmer.

Adani Green Energy, Renew Power, Greenko Energies and JSW Solar are investing nearly Rs. 1,64,540 crore in total and will be providing employment opportunities to over 37000 people in the renewable energy sector over the next couple of years.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said, “It should be ensured that new projects are started in a time bound manner by removing bottlenecks in investment in the state. In the last two years, the state government has implemented many important policies and programs to increase investment in the state. Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme (RIPS 2019), Rajasthan Industrial Development Policy 2019, through One Stop Shop System and Single Window System and many facilities are being provided to investors.”

He instructed the officers that every effort should be made to increase investment in the state. He also said that to promote tourism in the state, the state government has created a tourism policy. This time, an allocation of Rs 500 crore has been made in the budget for the Tourism Development Fund. This amount will be spent on the branding of the state as a tourist destination and on the development and investment of tourism infrastructure.

Gehlot instructed the officials that the department related to industry and investment should formulate an action plan with the tourism department and work to increase investment in the tourism sector in the state.

Other than RE, projects from Sahasara Semiconductors in the electronics sector, Mewar Polytex in the technical textile sector, ASI Industries in the engineering manufacturing stone, Hemdha Medisources in the medical and health and Kanchan India in textile have also been cleared by the Board.

Also, issues pertaining to projects of Kajaria Group in the bathware manufacturing and ceramic tiles, JCB in earth moving machines, the French glass giant Saint-Gobain in the glass manufacturing sectors were cleared for smooth operation of these projects.

Collectively the total investment from these companies is estimated to be over Rs. 3200 crore and employment of over 5600 persons is expected.

The Board of Investment (BOI) has been constituted under the Rajasthan Enterprises Single Window Enabling and Clearance Act. The state government through an amendment in the act in year 2020 had provisioned the board for fast track clearance of proposals related to customized packages under RIPS 2019.

Ashutosh A. T. Pednekar, Industries Secretary, Rajasthan Government said, “Investment scenario in the state has changed in recent times. Corporates are encouraged by the policies and support being extended by the state government for setting up their ventures in Rajasthan. We have some major proposals lined up which will soon be taken up to appropriate level for decision.”

For the ease of doing business, Rajasthan has been constantly innovating the processes and notably, the state has achieved place among the top states in the country in 2019 with an implementation score of 98.39 per cent. The state has focused on development in the sectors such as renewable energy, auto, and components, textiles and apparels, food processing, petrochemicals, mines and minerals, pharmaceuticals and leather and footwear with country leaders’ brands and companies of each sector’s presence and investments in the state.

Saharsa Semiconductors will be setting up an assembling, testing, marking, packaging unit for production of memory components. It will go a long way for becoming self-reliant in domestic production to meet the rapidly growing electronics demand in the country.

ASI Industries will be setting up engineered stone manufacturing unit which will be an export-oriented unit that will export 90 per cent of the produce to USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Gulf, etc.