States Woo Diaspora For Investment At Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

GANDHINAGAR: Several chief ministers Friday wooed the Indian diaspora at the 13th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas here to come and invest in their states and promised several incentives, while Kerala urged that the diaspora be given online voting rights.

Among the chief ministers who attended the session, called Investment Opportunities in States, were Andhra Pradeshs' N. Chandrababu Naidu, Madhya Pradesh's Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Punjab's Parkash Singh Badal, Kerala's Oommen Chandy, Maharashtra's Devendra Fadnavis, Haryana's Manohar Lal Khattar, Jharkhand's Raghubar Das and Goa's Laxmikant Parsekar.

Earlier, chairing the session at the PBD, the world's largest annual gathering of people of Indian origin, union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the country is "moving towards an era of cooperative federalism, giving voice to states in shaping the economic destiny of the nation".

He said the new government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already taken a series of measures to reignite the economy.

"We have reasons to be optimistic as we are constantly making course corrections to gain investor confidence," he said.

Singh said the 'Make in India' initiative is a "mission to transform this country from an importer of manufactured items to an exporter of manufactured products". The objective is to increase the share of manufacturing in the GDP from the current level of 14 percent to 25 percent.

Andhra's Chandrababu Naidu said his state after the bifurcation is a new state and facing some troubles. "There is a crisis but there are opportunities too. By 2022 when India reaches 75 years after independence, we want our state to be the top three in the country. By 2029, we want to be top in the happiness index and by 2050 we want to be the best global destination," he said.

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