Speaking at a function recently, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that the state government has allotted 840 acres of land to 384 industrial units in the past 17 months, with an estimated investment of Rs 11,000 crore. Last month, Gokuldas Exports Ltd started work on setting up its readymade garment unit with an investment of Rs 110 crore in Bhopal's Acharpura Industrial Area's Textile Park. Acharpura Industrial Area has been developed on a 146-hectare land. There are 154 plots in Textile Park, Acharpura, in which there is a potential for capital investment of Rs 800 crore for setting up industries. Textiles is one of the many sectors that offer investment opportunities in the state.

Locational advantage
Located centrally, Madhya Pradesh is popularly known as the 'heart of India' and is a beneficiary of mega infrastructure projects, with both North-South and East-West corridor crossing the state. For industrial growth, the state offers excellent support infrastructure having a robust rail network with 550 trains crossing daily, National Highway network of 5,000+ kms, 5 commercial airports operating 100+ flights and 6 inland container depots (ICDs). Indore has been rated the 1st and Bhopal has been rated 2nd clenanest city in the Cleanliness Survey 2018 by Government of India.

Madhya Pradesh is an agrarian state. Primary sector’s contribution to the state’s Gross Value Added (GVA) increased from 33.85% in 2011-12 to 46.98% in 2020-21.

The state has a strong base of mineral resources and accounts for 14% of India's total cement production. The state has an oil refinery at Bina with an annual capacity of 6 MMT. The installed power capacity of the state is over 23,400 MW; 35% of which is contributed by renewable energy sources. The state is a leading producer of a variety of horticulture crops and offers lucrative opportunities for food processing industries.

Key industries
Madhya Pradesh offers opportunities in automobiles, engineering, textiles, food processing, renewables and agriculture equipment, among others.

Automobile and engineering
MP has developed world class infrastructure including industrial parks, industrial corridors and testing facilities for the automotive industry. Indore, Pithampur and Mandideep form one of India's leading auto clusters with presence of major industry leaders. Spread across 2,000 hectares, Pithampur Auto Cluster has over 120 large units and 450 small and medium units with combined investment of approximately $ 11.3 billion. Over 30 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have manufacturing bases in the state. More than 200 auto component manufacturers provide well developed automotive ecosystem for OEMs.

India’s 1st international skilling institution "Global Skill Park" has been set up in Bhopal. The state has skill development institutes such as Indo-German Tool Room (IGTR) at Indore, MSME Technology Centre at Bhopal and Symbiosis Skill University at Indore.

In June 2021, Asia's longest high-speed track for automotive testing near Indore in Madhya Pradesh was inaugurated. The four-lane track measures 11.3 km, making it the fifth-largest in the world as well. The oval-shaped National Automotive Test Tracks (NATRAX) facility is 16 metres wide and spread on 2,960 acres of land in Pithampur, located 50 km from Indore. Now the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will be able to perform a wide variety of automotive tests — like coast down, brake, speedometer calibration, constant speed fuel consumption, noise, vibration measurement, and mileage accumulation among others — on one track.

In April 2021, the first-ever electric tractor in the country was tested at the Central Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute (CFMTTI) in Budni, Madhya Pradesh. The electric tractor will be more environmentally friendly than other types of tractors.

Pharmaceutical
Madhya Pradesh is a major pharmaceuticals hub in the country with presence of key national and international companies of this sector. More than 1 lakh people in the state are employed in pharma sector. Pharmaceutical products are being exported to 217 countries from the state, which has policies catering to all needs of pharmaceuticals sector. Eight bulk drugs, 31 formulations, 4 large volume parenteral WHO-GMP compliant units are present in the state. The main pharma clusters are Indore, Dewas, Bhopal, Mandideep. Pithampur SEZ is India’s leading manufacturing hub.

Textiles
Textile & apparel industry is the key focus sector of Madhya Pradesh having more than 60 large cotton & man-made fibre textile mills, with installed capacity of 2,467,112 spindles. Yarn produced in the state is being exported to other countries for forward processing. Indore, Bhopal, Ujjain, Dhar, Dewas, Khargone, Khandwa, Burhanpur, Gwalior, Chhindwara and Jabalpur are major centres for textile industry in Madhya Pradesh. Readymade garment industry cluster at Indore houses over 1,200 units with an apparel designing center at Indore SEZ. Four new textile parks are proposed at Indore, Chhindwara, Ratlam and Bhopal regions. The state has textile and apparel sector specific design and technology institutes such as NIFT, Bhopal; NID, Bhopal; etc. Apparel Training and Design Centres are situated in Indore, Bhopal and Chhindwara. Recently, Sagar Group invested Rs 10 billion in the field of textiles in Madhya Pradesh leading to creation of 4000 jobs.

Defence
Madhya Pradesh has historical ordnance manufacturing sites of Katni, Jabalpur and Itarsi and presence of companies such as BHEL, L&T, Bharat Forge, and PUNJ Lloyd. India is the largest importer of arms in the world - accounting for about 14% of the world's arms import. The Government of India is aiming to change this by promoting self-reliance and indigenisation. MP can provide a ready-made ecosystem for scaling up defence manufacturing in the country.

IT/ITeS and ESDM
Madhya Pradesh offers plug and play facilities for IT/ITeS companies in Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior and Jabalpur. The IT, ITeS and ESDM policy has been unveiled for promoting the sector in the state. With more than 200 engineering colleges in MP, skilled technical manpower is easily available.

Renewable energy
The renewable energy capacity of Madhya Pradesh increased four-fold to reach over 8,100 MW between 2012-2019. The Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Power Plant, with a capacity of 750 MW, started its operations in July 2018 and is expected to supply power to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation projects. Additionally, about 10,950 MW of projects are under implementation in the state.

Sustaining growth
Speaking at the recently held Madhya Pradesh India's Emerging Export Tiger Conclave at Commerce Festival 2021, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, "There is a lot of potential for increasing exports in the state. Keeping in view the District as Export Hub vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Export Promotion Council is being constituted in the state that will start working shortly. Export Promotion Committees will also be constituted in each district. About 64 products of all the districts have been selected under the ‘One District One Product’ scheme."

The state has taken a long leap in ease of doing business. Madhya Pradesh, now ranked fourth in the country, is aiming to be among the top-three in the next ranking. Steps like 'Start Your Business in Thirty Days' have been taken to encourage the establishment of industries in the state. All the activities related to the establishment of industries are being conducted from a single window.

Labour-intensive industries are being promoted in the state to create maximum employment opportunities. Investment in industries like pharma, auto, textile and garments, food-processing, and engineering products are being encouraged. Despite the difficult circumstances of Covid 19 pandemic, there has been a rapid increase in industrial investment in Madhya Pradesh. And the state expects to sustain the growth momentum in the future.

Information Courtesy: www.investindia.gov.in and newspapers sources

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News Snippet

Shakti Pumps aims for Rs 2,000 crore topline in FY22

Madhya Pradesh based water pump maker Shakti Pumps is targeting to more than double the topline to Rs 2,000 crore this fiscal on the back of more adoption of its products by farmers which is being driven by the heavy central and state subsidies that run up to 90 per cent, says a PTI report.

The company closed FY21 with a topline of Rs 930 crore, which was nearly three times its previous year revenue. Of the past year revenue, Rs 560 crore came in from solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) business (setting up the full unit) and Rs 180 crore from exports, said Dinesh Patidar, Chairman and Managing Director of Shakti Pumps, to PTI.

Founded in 1982 in Pithampur (near Indore), Shakti Pumps has manufactured the country’s first BEE 5 star-rated pumps and is also the first domestic company to produce 100 per cent stainless steel pumps and energy efficient motors. At present, its products reach as much 125 world markets. The company has filed for 20 patents since it pioneered the solar water pumps in 2010. Other key players in the solar water pump market include Alpex Solar, Bright Solar, Claro Energy, Conergy Energy, Tata Power Solar Systems, Lorentz, Greenmax Technology, and Udhaya Semiconductors and so on.

Shakti Pumps has two plants in Pitampur with a cumulative production capacity (solar and motorised) of 5 lakh units per annum in two shifts and 3.5 lakh units in single shift. Its special economic zone (SEZ) unit near-by can produce 1.5 lakh units per annum. “We expect robust demand for solar water pumps this year as there is increasing awareness about the huge financial benefits from them and the good monsoons giving them enough liquidity. Accordingly, FY22 revenue should more than double to Rs 2,000 crore. The export front also looks promising as we just bagged a Rs 250-crore order from Uganda. This should help us net Rs 500 crore from exports this fiscal year,” Dinesh Patidar told PTI.

The entry into southern markets, especially Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu should also boost volumes, he said. Shakti Pumps has installed over 1 lakh solar pumps out of (1.2 lakh installed) since it entered the segment in 2010 and in FY21 it had installed 20,000 units under the EPC model (setting up the solar water pump unit along with the solar power panel units) and 15,000 units were sold to others who install such pumps across.

Its main markets are Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, MP and Chhattisgrah, while Andhra, Telangana and Tamil Nadu are the new growth markets in a year or two from now, Patidar said. Shakti Pumps has over 260 pump models and over 1,000 stock-keeping unit (SKUs) with their capacity ranging from 300 watts to 300 kilo watts.