Jammu, Feb 23: Despite huge tax rebates offered by the state and union governments, Jammu and Kashmir has largely remained un-preferred destination for the investors.
 Five out of 20 industrial states led by Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Karnataka have emerged as preferred investment destinations attracting 53.56 per cent of total investments worth Rs 120.34 lakh crore, according to a recent study undertaken by ASSOCHAM.
 While Gujarat attracted investment proposals of Rs 16.28 lakh crore, Maharashtra Rs 14.14 lakh crore, Andhra Pradesh Rs 12.09 lakh crore, Odisha Rs 12.09 lakh crore, Karnataka Rs 9.85 lakh crore till 2011-end, the remaining 15 states received Rs 55.89 lakh crore worth of proposals.
 Jammu and Kashmir, the Chamber says, attracted least investors and remained in the bottom five states of the country with “an investment of just Rs 1.11 lakh crore being pumped into the state.”
 The state was followed by Uttarakhand (Rs 1.07 lakh crore), Himachal Pradesh (Rs 84,062 crore) and Assam (Rs 58,179 crore).
  The highest amount of investment has gone into electricity (35.9 per cent), manufacturing (25.3 per cent), services (21.8 per cent), real estate (11.8 per cent), irrigation (3.1 per cent) and mining (2.1 per cent).
 The state of Jammu and Kashmir has also shown little interest in the investment in electricity despite having highest potential in the sector.
 As regards the share of electricity, the sector has got the highest share of investments in the states of Gujarat, Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The bottom five states to focus on electricity are Assam, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, the report claimed.
 “Investment in the primary sector represented by irrigation has the highest share in Andhra Pradesh,” said ASSOCHAM secretary general D.S. Rawat.
 “Next are Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. As against these states, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Assam gave the least priority to investing in irrigation development.”
  Mining has got the highest share in live investments in the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. As opposed to this trend, mining sector got the least share in total investments in Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir.
 Manufacturing is expected to achieve higher growth relatively to other sectors in the states of Odisha, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Karnataka, and West Bengal. Conversely, manufacturing got lower shares in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Assam.
 When contacted, Minister for Industries, S.S Slathia said the situation in the past 20 years has hampered the investment in the state.
 “State faced militancy for last two decades and it was in just past few years that investors are coming to J&K. It is slowly picking up”.
 He said that it is obvious that if there is peace in the state, investors will show their interest.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:30:00 GMT
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