Simla Stock：Can Rajasthan govt❼global investment summit enthuse local entrepreneurs too？

The Bhajan Lal Sharma government will be organising the Rising Rajasthan Global Investment Summit in Jaipur from December 9 to 11. The chief minister has been to Japan and South Korea to attract investors while state industry and commerce minister Rajyavardhan Rathore recently visited the UAE and Qatar, holding meetings and roadshows.

The moot point is whether the summit can fructify into solid investment or will follow in the line of similar events held by previous dispensations wherein the proposals from business houses are in stark contrast to the actual investment on the ground.

So far, the BJP government has not made tall claims about the December gathering, except Sharma saying that he aims to make Rajasthan a $350 billion economy by the end of 2028, when his regime completes its five-year tenure.

Rajasthan has held many such high-profile conclavesSimla Stock. Former Congress chief minister Ashok Gehlot, during his first term, had organised the first International Rajasthani Conclave in 2000, which brought prominent non-resident Marwari personalities to their homeland on the government’s invite. The Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government held another edition of the conclave in 2007 and another one in 2015, while Gehlot organised it again in 2012 and 2022.

Chief minister Sharma, who will be looking to make the investment summit a grand success, is hopeful that the Narendra Modi government will extend it full support and that the prime minister will perhaps inaugurate it.

Sharma has deputed 23 bureaucrats to reach out to various countries and 19 to their home states in India as points of contact for potential investors. Ten new IAS officers will contribute as protocol officers. On September 21, the chief minister did a video conference with IAS officers from other state cadre but whose home state is Rajasthan, urging them to encourage investment in Rajasthan. The day before, he had invited senior retired IAS and IPS officers for discussions. These moves are also being seen as brand-building for Sharma. Meanwhile, Rajasthan chief secretary Sudhansh Pant had led a delegation of senior officers to study global summits held in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.

While officials working on the investment summit say they have started receiving proposals and that some memorandums of understanding have also been signed, there is mixed response from entrepreneurs and investors in the stateChennai Investment. Some of them told INDIA TODAY said successive governments in Rajasthan had failed to encourage local investors and that the state lacked a policy of giving them preference over entrepreneurs from outside.

Some investors claimed they got no relaxations or incentives to smoothly run their units in RajasthanVaranasi Stock. They also complained that the government does not encourage them in the same way as it is wooing investors from other states.

An entrepreneur claimed rarely do such mega events succeed in bringing major investments, for which the state government has to ultimately rely on local investors. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and Sharma will probably be meeting a diverse range of people, including local investors and entrepreneurs, in due course to negate such feelings and create enthusiasm in the local investor community for an event that is intended to boost Rajasthan’s image as an investment destination.

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