State to restart ‘Magnetic Maharashtra’ this year

Maharashtra to restart 'Magnetic Maharashtra' event this year to attract investments, aiming for October-December, after previous disruptions.

MUMBAI: The state government will restart ‘Magnetic Maharashtra’, the event started by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to attract new investments, from this year, with the industry department looking at the feasibility of organising it sometime between October and December.

State to restart ‘Magnetic Maharashtra’ this year

The event, ‘Magnetic Maharashtra’, was held for the first time in 2018 on the initiative of the then chief minister Fadnavis. When the MVA government took over in 2019, they organised ‘Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0’, but it was mainly an online event held in June 2020, due to the pandemic. Since then, the event has not been held, mainly due to the political instability in the state and the disinterest of Eknath Shinde, who took over as the CM.

When Fadnavis became the CM again in November last year, he reviewed the industry department and asked the officials to restart the event.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, state industries secretary P Anbalagan said, “We attracted 185 US billion dollars in Davos. To scale up to the next level, we will hold ‘Magnetic Maharashtra’ this year, sometime between October to December.’’

Sources in the state industries department said the event will be organised on a grand scale at either Jio World or Goregaon as no land is available at BKC. “Jio World would be preferable as there are good hotels in the vicinity to house the visiting investors,’’ a senior officer said, while emphasising the importance of such events as these provide strong platforms of convergence for Indian and foreign investors. “It helps the government explore its own potential in the bigger interest of the state economy.”

The 2018 ‘Magnetic Maharashtra’ was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi along with the then CM Devendra Fadnavis. The then Tata Sons president, Ratan Tata, also attended the event.

Notably, similar events were held before also, under different names. During the Shiv Sena-BJP rule from 1995-99, the state had organised ‘Advantage Maharashtra’ and ‘Advantage Maharashtra Agriculture’.