Davos 2026 | Not just Mumbai, we are creating new magnets of growth: Devendra Fadnavis

There was a time when Mumbai, Pune and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region were Maharashtra's main growth centres, but the state has started creating 'new magnets of growth', Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told Business Today on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Fadnavis was in a conversation with Business Today Group Editor Siddharth Zarabi and India Today Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai in Davos. He was responding to long-standing concerns about regional imbalance, particularly in areas outside the Mumbai–Nashik–Pune "Golden Triangle" and regions such as Vidarbha.

He said this shift is already visible in how Maharashtra is positioning different districts around specific sectors. "So today, our EV capital is not Pune anymore, our EV capital is Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar," he said, adding that the electric vehicle ecosystem is drawing large global players.

"So all who's who from EV have already invested, and the biggest investor is Toyota. Toyota has come big time, they are coming with 100,000 of their other ancillaries, they thousand of their ancillaries are coming there," he said.

Fadnavis said Nagpur has emerged as another major investment hub, anchored around renewable energy manufacturing. "Then, one more magnet which we have created is Nagpur. So in Nagpur, now India's biggest solar module capacity, biggest solar module, entire module in both wafers, everything, now that is created in Nagpur," he said.

He said Nashik, traditionally known for agro-based industries, has also been repositioned as a strategic centre for defence and aviation manufacturing. "Then Nashik, we have created a new magnet whereby initially we started building agro-based industries in Nashik, but now avionics and the entire defence aviation are hubbed at Nashik. The biggest order in the history of defence aviation has gone to Nashik. So we are creating that," he said.

Fadnavis said heavy industry investments are also flowing into eastern Maharashtra. "Gadchiroli has become a steel city, around 3 lakh crores of investment has gone there," he said.

He added that similar momentum is now visible in neighbouring districts. "I must tell you that the new entrant is Nandurbar. Yesterday, we inked MOUs worth Rs 4,000 crores in Nandurbar," he said.