Maiden Show Wonders

Momentum Jharkhand was quite the show. Over 200 MoUs were signed for a total investment of more than Rs 3 lakh crore.

- Abid Hasan

IT TURNS OUR elephants can fly. The soaring success of Jharkhand’s maiden global investor summit — Momentum Jharkhand — that had an improbable baby elephant with wings as its mascot, is proof.

During the summit, held on 16 and 17 February, 2017, Jharkhand secured investment commitments worth over Rs 3 lakh crore with 210 memorandums of understanding (MoU) signed.

The event witnessed attendance by a host of industrialists, central ministers, including finance minister Arun Jaitley, road minister Nitin Gadkari, power minister Piyush Goyal and Jayant Sinha, and foreign dignitaries.

The ‘History’ Test

While the state has received an enormous amount of money in proposed deals, it is a long walk from signing MoUs to actual execution. Especially, since the Jharkhand government has a dismal track record of poor execution of previous projects. In the last decade, out of 125 MoUs signed by the state, 74 have fallen through.

Reports suggest that those 74 MoUs were worth Rs 2.93 lakh crore of projects. Trouble in land acquisition and political instability among others have been the top reasons for the failure of several projects.