With defence minister Rajnath Singh also invited, some announcement in the defence production sector is expected during the event to be held from January 27 to 29.His confirmation too is awaited.
The event is being organized by the Association for Industrial Development which has an 11-member committee to manage the affairs. The idea has been mooted by Gadkari.
“The idea behind holding the event is to shed the general perception that Vidarbha is a backward region and does not have the ecosystem for industrial development,” said Girdhar Mantri, vice-president of the organizing committee. “A coffee-table book will be published on the Vidarbha success story. As many as 40 businessmen will be featured in it,” said Mantri.
Since the defence minister is also expected to be present, announcement from this sector is expected to be made during Advantage Vidarbha, he said.
The committee’s secretary, Vijay Sharma, said the idea is to hold the event at a major scale to showcase the region’s strength. There will be focus on tie-ups with the universities for the providing trained manpower for the industries. The coffee-table book will be featuring businessmen across the Vidarbha not limiting it to Nagpur alone, he said. “Much of the focus will be on the path ahead,” said Sharma.
Julfesh Shah, who heads the committee on finance and incentives, said a number of schemes which are not known to the businessmen in general will be explained in detail. For example, Vidarbha has been declared a special tourism zone. With this, any investor in the region will get 100% refund of the state goods and services tax (SGST) component charged for the services.
Another recent initiative gives the status of mega projects for investment worth Rs200 crore in some of the sectors. Elsewhere in the state, there has to be an investment of ₹500 crore at least to get the mega project status and avail the related incentives.
“There is a policy of incentives on incremental export turnover. However, not many entrepreneurs are aware of the schemes which have been announced recently. It is expected that spreading information ill boost investment,” said Shah.