Economy & Business
India’s biggest manufacturing promotional till date at home – the Make in India Week – concluded in Mumbai with investment commitments of over 15 lakh crore (U.S.$220 billion), the Central Government said.
The event attracted 8.9 lakh visitors, 8,245 B2B, B2G, and G2G meetings, 1,245 national and international speakers, 215 exhibitors from 102 nations.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said over half of the investment commitments were for his state. “We have signed many memoranda of understanding with several companies across sectors to the tune of 8 lakh crore during the Make in India Week,” he said. Of the total investments committed, 30 per cent are from foreign investors.
The Maharashtra government had signed pacts worth 6 lakh crore, which included large commitments from Mahindra and Mahindra (8,000 crore), Mercedes (4,270 crore), Panchshil (5,000 crore), JSW Jaigarh Port (6,000 crore) and RCF Chemicals (6,204 crore), among others. It also signed other deals worth over 1,60,000 crore, which include commitments from CIDCO’s two projects – Khalapur Smart City (7,909 crore) and townships in NAINA project area worth 29,952 crore.
Karnataka received 9,700 crore of investment proposals at the Make in India Week. The investments include 6,000 crore by First Solar for a solar cell unit, 2,284 crore by French firm Tar Kovacs Systems for an ocean-based renewable energy project and 1,250 crore by Pert Telecom to make smart products and solutions for street lighting, IT security, surveillance and global positioning system (GPS).
The event, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 13, saw many corporate houses announce their plans to Make in India, notably, Mahindra and Mahindra, the Sajjan Jindal Group, Mercedez-Benz, Godrej, Posco, Vedanta, Ikea and Tatas.
Several union ministers made their pitch for investments at the event, with Power Minister Piyush Goyal saying his sector needed U.S.$1 trillion in investment.
While Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan outlined the existing and future policies to attract funds into downstream and upstream oil projects, Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete unfolded a policy to nearly double the share of capital goods in exports to 40 per cent.
The Union Cabinet approved the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) which aims at easing customs procedures to boost commerce. A national committee on TFA will be set up for coordinating and implementing the provisions of trade facilitation. The committee will be co-chaired by both Revenue Secretary and Commerce Secretary.
The TFA will help in ease of doing business. TFA will contain (provisions for) movement of goods, release and clearance of goods and goods in transit.
The pact was agreed upon in at a multilateral meeting in Bali in 2013. It will take effect once two-thirds of the WTO members complete their domestic ratification process. So far 69 WTO members have ratified this pact.
TFA contains provisions for expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit. It also sets out measures for effective cooperation between customs and other appropriate authorities on trade facilitation and customs compliance issues.