Gujarat isn’t Pakistan: Devendra Fadnavis on losing projects to state

Devendra Fadnavis, dy CM

Amid criticism over losing projects to Gujarat, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the neighbouring state isn't Pakistan, and it is natural for some projects to go to other states. Speaking at the India Global Forum, Fadnavis said we are in the era of "competitive federalism" and the number of states vying for investments has gone up to 10 now from just 2-3 earlier, a "welcome" development.

"A company going to Gujarat, Karnataka or Delhi. it's not Pakistan. It's our country," Fadnavis said. He was quick to add that Maharashtra "really wants" everyone to come to the state, and has been working on both ease of doing business and cost of doing business. Notably, the Opposition has criticised the Maharashtra government for losing mega investment projects like the ones on semiconductors to neighbouring Gujarat.

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Fadnavis said the state has formed a panel under Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran for achieving economic success, and exuded confidence of taking the GSDP to USD 1 trillion by 2030. He claimed that the state is the start-up capital as it is home to a fifth of the overall number of such enterprises, and also added that 25 unicorns valued at over USD 1 billion each are headquartered in the state. A Centre of Excellence on artificial intelligence is coming up in IIIT Nagpur in collaboration with Google, he said.