Semiconductor plant: Why Vedanta picked Gujarat over Maharashtra - Anil Agarwal explains

A day after Vedanta announced that it was setting up a semiconductor plant with Foxconn in Gujarat, its chairman Anil Agarwal late Wednesday evening explained how his company zeroed in on the state for a Rs 1.54 lakh crore investment.

Gujarat's selection for this mega project surprised many especially politicians who were under the impression that Vedanta had almost decided on Maharashtra. The officials from Vedanta had in fact had several rounds of discussions at the higher level, including meeting with Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.    

Today, Agarwal said Vedanta-Foxconn had been professionally assessing the site for multi-billion dollar investment, and "this is a scientific and financial process which takes several years". He said the company started the process about two years ago and a team of internal and external professional agencies shortlisted a few states like Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.

"For the last two years, we have been engaging with each of these governments as well as the central government and have received fantastic support. We decided on Gujarat few months ago as they met our expectations," he added. Agarwal, however, said that Maharashtra tried to outbid other states with a competitive offer but Vedanta settled with Gujarat.  

"But in July meeting with Maharashtra leadership, they made a huge effort to outbid other states with a competitive offer. We have to start in one place and based on professional and independent advice we chose Gujarat," he said.

The Vedanta chairman further said that this multibillion-dollar long-term investment will change the course of Indian electronics. "We will create a pan-India ecosystem & are fully committed to investing in Maharashtra as well. Maharashtra will be our key to forward integration in our Gujarat JV," he said.