Maharashtra Will Soon Become India's First Trillion-Dollar State: PM Modi

Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday opened the Magnetic Maharashtra summit in the presence of national and international business leaders including Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Anand Mahindra and Richard Branson in Mumbai on Sunday evening.

Praising the Maharashtra government's efforts to improve infrastructure by building, metros, highways and airports, PM Modi said, "We believe potential, policy, planning, performance and leads to progress. That's why today new highways, railway lines housing projects, I can add fifty more things, are being built at three times the speed than what it was earlier."

"I am pleased the state government has decided to make the state the country's first trillion dollar economy. In Chhatrapati Shivaji's place, it is not difficult to achieve any goal," the Prime Minister added.
 Taking a dig at the previous Congress regime, the PM said, "A few years ago when the country became a trillion dollar economy, there were big headlines but the next few years there was a series of scams and the environment changed. The discussion changed from the 'trillion dollar club' to 'fragile five'. In the last three years this government has worked to steer the course towards a five trillion dollar economy."

Putting the focus on infrastructure, business tycoon Anand Mahindra asked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis what his dream was for Mumbai and said industry would stand by him to fulfil that dream. "This state has a 'brahmastra'. Mumbai is a jewel in your crown. But it's a double edged sword. If the city begins to drown under its weight and you mismanage it's growth, then you may just as well turn away investors," he said.
 Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani told the gathering, "I have never seen such explosion of ambition in Maharashtra as I see today. Mumbai is also home to Jio, our newest technology startup in the Reliance family. When our Prime Minister unveiled his Digital India vision, it became Jio's own mission. Before Jio's launch India was 155th in the world in mobile data consumption. Today, India is number one. Over 170 million Indian enjoy the highest quality data services at the lowest prices from Jio over the last 15 to 18 months."

Mukesh Ambani also announced Reliance will establish India's first integrated industrial area for the fourth industrial revolution in the state of Maharashtra. "Reliance will invest with a coalition of global companies more than Rs 60,000 crore over the next 10 years in this collaborative initiative," Mr Ambani said.
 One announcement that generated a lot of buzz came from Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Group. "India can soon have an operational Hyperloop reducing the travel time to cover the 140-km distance between Mumbai and Pune to 14-25 minutes from 3-4 hours at present," he said drawing a cheer from the crowd.

The need for better transportation and traffic management was further highlighted when Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani and Richard Branson had to wait and walk to find their cars after the event as the road had been blocked due to security arrangements leading to traffic jam.