In a bid to attract potential investors state chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan visited USA, Britain and China. He also interacted with industrialists at Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai. Advertisements have been inserted in newspapers listing the reasons to invest in Madhya Pradesh.

The advertisement published in local newspapers claim that in the context of ease of doing business Madhya Pradesh is among the first top five states of the country. This is the finding of the World Bank report of 2015. The report was prepared by the survey done by World Bank on the direction of Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy of the Government of India.
The state has created a land bank consisting of one lakh 20 thousand acres. There is ample availability of power. The state's, generation capacity has increased from 4 thousand megawatts to 18,900 megawatts. The state has set up an elaborate single window system to provide instant solution of the problems faced by investors. Online facility is available for booking of land for industries. The areas in which investments is required are textiles, automobiles, engineering, ITs, Tourism, renewable energy, defence, Agri-business, food processing and Urban development. The main slogan of the state is it is 'easy to do business in Madhya Pradesh but easier to invest in Madhya Pradesh'.

But looking to the promises made in the past there is a big gap in fulfilling them. A leading industrialist who is keen to invest in Madhya Pradesh says that a multi-layered bureaucratic red tape and poor air connectivity are the two top obstacles preventing the kind of investment Madhya Pradesh has been pushing for since chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's visit to foreign countries five years ago.

Chouhan, the three-term BJP chief minister, promised a hassle-free environment for investors. But the bureaucracy's attitude didn't change as it continued to prefer a cumbersome multi-window system, alleged industrialists and experts.

Past record from four such summits since 2007 has not been heartening. Actual investment has been low and of 2,357 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) signed, only 92 projects have been commissioned. Worse, 537 have been cancelled.

'Our minister concerned and bureaucrats show all the humility in their command to roll out the red carpet for investors and try to make them feel that if they are looking for the most industrialist-friendly country on earth,' remarked a dignitary from a foreign mission, who didn't wish to be named. 'On the contrary, in Madhya Pradesh, we confronted high-headed bureaucrats who appear to be doing a favour to us by sparing some of their time for us,' he said.

The bureaucracy's attitude left him aghast, despite chief minister Chouhan's proactive approach.

Industrialists feel the biggest impediments are departments within departments.

A case in point is getting clearances from several windows in the labour department-for such as health and safety, ESI and provident fund-despite reforms in labour laws. A similar situation prevails in other departments.

'If you can get clearances in investor-friendly countries in 30 minutes, these will take at least two years in Madhya Pradesh,' said an industrialist, preferring to speak anonymously.

A single-window system for seamless and time-bound approval of paperwork of investors exists. Many processes have become transparent already. But the system is seldom implemented in letter and spirit.

Chouhan pulled up Industry Department officials last month and asked them to make the single-window system more effective. His anger is understandable. Industry body Assocham said in its August report that fresh investments dipped by 14% in the last fiscal year.

To deflect criticism, the state government has been inviting 'intention to invest' proposals online ahead of the summit and has finalised some big-ticket investment proposals. These include agreements with Micromax mobile phone-makers, ZF Steering Gear, Motherson Sumi, and Ramdev's Patanjali, besides land allocation to Cadila Pharma.

'The ease of doing business has improved to some extent as many processes such extent as many processes such as getting approvals and land allocations have become online, but nothing moves without meeting the officials concerned,' said Yogesh Mehta, the secretary of the state's Association of Industry.

State industry minister Rajendra Shukla admitted as much, saying more improvements are needed in the single-window system to attract investors.

The managing director of the Madhya Pradesh Trade and Investment Facilitation Corporation Ltd. DP Ahuja, defended the state's push as an investment destination.

'I feel that the ease of doing business in MP with easy accessibility of political establishment and peaceful nature of the state has made us the frontrunner and sought-after state for industrial investment. Availability of land with no disputes or litigation is our key strength.Further in the last DIPP ranking, Madhya Pradesh was considered one of the best implementers of single window”.

However there is a good news from Indore. Around a decade ago, Madhya Pradesh was just a blip in the Information Technology map of the country, but with IT giants Infosys and TCS planning to start operations in Indore from 2017, the state – especially Indore - is emerging as a favoured destination for IT companies.

In Madhya Pradesh, the majority of the action remains confined to Indore. At present, there are over half a dozen big companies with over 500 employees in the city. There are also a huge number of start-ups, and going by estimates of the Indore-based start-up community, there are over 250 such entrepreneurial ventures functioning in the city. (IPA Service)