The Maharashtra Government has frozen Chinese projects worth Rs 5,000 crores
After the several skirmishes between India and China along the LAC and the Galwan Valley, the state government of Maharashtra has decided to not sign any further projects with Chinese companies
In a turn of events, the Maharashtra Government has decided to freeze Chinese projects in the state, which is essentially worth Rs 5,000 crores. Quite recently, Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors had signed an MoU with Indian state of Maharashtra for a new manufacturing plant which was to be based in Talegaon, but after the clash between the Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley, it seems that this venture, amongst others have been put on hold.
Subhash Desai, Maharashtrian Minister of Industries said, “We have taken this decision in consultation with the Central government. These agreements were signed prior to the development on the Indo-China border and killing of 20 Indian soldiers.”
Furthermore, the Ministry of External Affairs has asked the state government to refrain from singing any agreements with Chinese companies. Prior to this deal going sour, Tata was thinking of forming a partnership with Chinese automaker Cherry, but after the raised tensions on the LAC, the two companies decided to rethink their partnership, and for now, they have hit pause on working together. We covered an article on Tata-Cherry ‘Tata Motors and Chinese automaker Chery are ‘on a break’ do read it to get a better idea of what went wrong between the two.
Great Wall Motors would have invested $ 1 billion in India, in a phased fashion, they also intended on beginning production of vehicles in the Talegaon manufacturing facility and were planning on building a R & D centre in Bangalore. Apart from the capital boost, this would have surely provided a large employment opportunity in the country, and given the current unemployment situation caused due to a relatively suffering economy and Covid 19, passing up on this may just result in some backlash. It begs the question, does patriotism come first or economic gains ?
Moreover, the other Chinese projects which have been halted are those of PMI Electro Mobility (a joint venture with Foton, a Chinese based firm) and Henglu Engineering. PMI Electro Mobility would have invested Rs 1,000 crores and Henglu Engineering would have brought in 250 crores.
