The year 2022-23 has seen five states accounting for more than half of the total bank-assisted investment proposals, as per a report in The Indian Express. The overall investment plans went up by 79 per cent with Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat far ahead of other states in the country. A study by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) found that the five states accounted for 57.2 per cent of the total investment proposals in the year (or Rs 2,01,700 crore in total project cost), higher than 43.2 per cent share during 2021-22.
In total, investment plans of 982 projects were made during 2022-23, the report said.
Uttar Pradesh attracted the highest number of proposals for new investments and the project cost stood at Rs 43,180 crore. Gujarat followed suit with Rs 37,317 crore. Odisha was at No 3 with Rs 11,810 crore.
Maharashtra and Karnataka were placed at No 4 and 5 with investments of Rs 7,900 crore and Rs 7,300 crore.
States like Tamil Nadu attracted Rs 6,100 crore worth of investment proposals, Telangana Rs 5,300 crore, Andhra Pradesh Rs 4,900 crore and Madhya Pradesh Rs 4,500 crore.
The study by the central bank ascribed the new investments in these states to a slew of factors that include their inclination towards improving the ease of doing business, large and growing markets and their strategic location, thereby attracting investors towards them.
Uttar Pradesh, the report notes, has focused on making concentrated efforts to improve the potential for investment in the last few years. The UP Investors' Facilitation Portal, the UP Industrial Development Policy 2020 and the UP Startup Policy 2020 are some of the steps taken by the state government to improve investments.
Kerala, Goa and Assam have fared poorly in the bank-assisted investment proposals, the study said, with these states at the bottom of the table. Kerala received just 0.9 per cent or Rs 2,399 crore worth of proposals while Assam got just 0.7 per cent, and Goa 0.8 per cent. Haryana and West Bengal also failed to bag many projects, accounting for around one per cent, or Rs 2,665 crore, of the total projects.
Gujarat's success in attracting investments has been attributed to the state's adequately developed infrastructure and its effective workforce, thereby making it a chosen hub for investment. The fact that the state also houses several Special Economic Zones (SEZs) that offer incentives to investors is also a contributing factor.