$5 Billion In 5 Years – Foxconn Picks Maharashtra For Make In India’s Biggest Investment Till Date

By Mohul Ghosh Last updated May 4, 2018

Make in India campaign is not only creating jobs and products, but it’s also creating history.

Foxconn has signed an MoU with Maharashtra Govt., which will bring in investments worth $5 billion (Rs 31,000 Crore) in the next 5 years, creating 50,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state.

This MoU is the largest single FDI agreement India has witnessed, after the roll out of Make in India campaign. And this also cements Maharashtra’s position as India’s #1 state to attract FDI.

The MoU was signed by Foxconn’s chief financial officer David Haung & State industries secretary Apurva Chandra in the presence of company’s chairman Terry Gou and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

CM Fadnavis said, “This investment will generate 50,000 direct jobs. Various studies have shown that if we don’t start manufacturing electronics items in India by 2030, our electronic items import bill will surpass our crude oil import bill,”

Glimpses from my visit to #Foxconn in China. Today,GoM& #Foxconn has started a new chapter in devpt of state & nation pic.twitter.com/eAhbLpX6q8

— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) August 8, 2015

As per some reports, Maharashtra Govt. will allocate around 1,500 acres of land near Talegaon, between Mumbai and Pune for Foxconn to establish their manufacturing units. Another unit can be based at Khalapur and on Pen-Khopoli Road, which are on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Besides producing smartphones, Foxconn will also start a research and development facility. Additionally, Foxconn may also start manufacturing thin film transistor or TFT, which is used in high definition TV sets.

On a national level, if we exclude Make in India campaign, then Posco’s commitment of investing $12 billon (Rs 74,000 crore) in Odisha was the biggest FDI proposal to have ever inked in India. However, that investment couldn’t materialize and the project closed down.

Between April 2000 and November 2014, Maharashtra attracted $70.41 billion worth of investments in the state which was 30% of the overall FDI received by India. No other state was able to breach this record.

After Fadnavis took over as the CM of Maharashtra, this is the single largest FDI announcement in the state. In June this year, General Motors had announced an investment of Rs 6400 crore in the Pune, which was the previous highest.

In the past few months, CM Fadnavis had spearheaded a special campaign, wherein roadshows were organized at Davos, China, US, Germany and Israel to persuade global firms to invest in Maharashtra.

Sharing the reasons Foxconn chose Maharashtra as their preferred location for investing such a huge amount, Gou said, “We have chosen Maharashtra for being a financial centre, availability of quality manpower and software-hardware integration facilities.”

Other Make in India Updates

In related news, China based smartphone manufacturer Phicomm will invest Rs 6400 crore in India, to establish 5 business units: mobile phones, SOHO, Enterprise, Cloud services and Intelligent Cities. The investment will be carried over in a phased manner, during the next 24 months.

As per Phicomm officials, the unit would be based out of Gurgaon or Bangalore, employing 50+ people.

Xiaomi, on the other hand, has decided to embrace Make in India vision in a big way. They have just announced their partnership with Foxconn to start manufacturing smartphones in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh. We were among the first to report this news in June this year.

Additionally, Xiaomi has also teamed up with Redington to open retail stores in India.

Here is a quick recap of all the major Make in India investments announced till now: