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Jharkhand Signs 209 MoUs Worth Rs 3 Lakh Crore In Investment Summit

The MoUs will create around 3 lakh jobs in Jharkhand: state government.

Laborers load coal into trucks at an open pit coal mine in Jharkhand, India (Photographer: Sanjit Das/Bloomberg)
Laborers load coal into trucks at an open pit coal mine in Jharkhand, India (Photographer: Sanjit Das/Bloomberg)

The Jharkhand government on Friday signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth Rs three lakh crore across nine sectors on the second and final day of the Global Investment Summit. These agreements would create three lakh new jobs, the state government told reporters during the summit in Ranchi.

Jharkhand is hosting its first ever investor's summit, Momentum Jharkhand, and has shown intent to move away from its traditional industrial base focused mainly on the mining sector.

The state government plans to invite companies engaged in other sectors, and shed an image restricted only to mining, Chief Minister Raghubar Das told BloombergQuint on Thursday.

Jharkhand has predominantly been a mining state when it comes to industries, with textiles taking another key spot. Das spoke about the government's Make in India plan, and said he felt promoting mirco, small, and medium businesses was a way to achieve that goal.

TRAI Plans Digital Transformation Of Jharkhand

RS Sharma, chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), attended the Summit and spoke about the importance of Digital India. Hetold BloombergQuint that Jharkhand is moving ahead in the the field of technology but lack of digital infrastructure is an issue in data connectivity. He went on to say that the state government has put forth four information technology and information-technology enabled services (IT and ITES) projects.

Impact of U.S. Visa Issue To Be Lesser Than Peers: Tech Mahindra

The impact of expected revision in H1 B visa policies by the U.S. would be less on Tech Mahindra Ltd., its Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer Jagdish Mitra told BloombergQuint on Friday on the sidelines of the summit.

H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows American firms to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. India is one of the top sources for international workers in the American tech industry, accounting for a major chunk of all H-1B visas. A legislative Bill in the U.S. has sought explicitly prohibiting companies from replacing qualified American workers with H1B workers.

Mitra said that the company has 40-41% revenue share coming from the U.S. market, which is one of the lowest among other IT players in the country.

On investing in Jharkhand, he said that Tech Mahindra was signing one MoU with the state and was keen on partnering with the government on technology solutions.