India witnessed investments of around Rs 3.48 lakh crore in the first half of the current fiscal, driven mainly by private projects which accounted 70 per cent of the total pie, a study says.
According to a survey by ProjectsToday, a firm tracking the country's project investments, during April-September 2010, as many as 4,930 new startups entailing a total investment of Rs 3,48,027 crore were announced.
During the period under review, the private sector announced 1,984 projects entailing a total investment of Rs 2,44,236 crore. As against this, government agencies announced 2,946 new initiatives with a total investment of Rs 1,03,791 crore.
"Nearly 70 per cent of the fresh investments emanating during this period were by private companies. Though sectors like textiles, chemicals, cement, steel and automobiles attracted more private investment, it was the thermal power sector which cornered nearly 50 per cent of such investments," ProjectsToday CEO Shashikant Hegde said.
The report further said that environmental issues are emerging as one of the main reason for delay in project execution.
Posco's Steel project, Vedanta's aluminium and mining project, Lafarge's cement project, Reliance Industries new Mumbai airport project and the hydel projects in Arunachal Pradesh are some of the mega projects delayed because of environment issues.
While, it is beyond doubt that a nation cannot compromise on environmental issues and land issues, it is also essential to ensure that project investments and economy development do not suffer inordinately at this crucial stage when the country is all set to enter a higher growth trajectory.
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A region wise analysis shows that Gujarat is the most preferred destination for fresh investment as the state attracted 374 startups worth Rs 76,243 crore, followed by Maharashtra with 746 startups worth Rs 51,116 crore.
The other three states to appear in the top five league were Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Most of the mega projects cornered by Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were power projects.
Together the top five states accounted for 63 per cent of the total fresh investments emanated in the first half of the current fiscal.
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were the other states to attract fresh investment of over Rs 20,000 crore each.
The survey further said that around 1,633 projects worth Rs 1,78,353 crore got commissioned during the said period.
While the manufacturing sector saw the highest amount of project investment fructifying (Rs 75,250 crore in 743 projects), the services and utilities sector saw the highest number of projects being completed (780 projects worth Rs 71,867 crore).
On the brighter side, in the last six months, according to the information available with us, 17 projects worth around Rs 73,000 crore have achieved financial closure, it added.