The World Economic Forum meeting being held at Davos in Switzerland every year is to help countries and states to showcase their investment potential and attract global firms to invest in their respective states and countries.
As part of that Indian companies also attend the WEF and explore the investment opportunities in other countries, while companies of other countries seek investment opportunities in India.
But there is no point in Indian states signing agreements with Indian companies at Davos for investments, as they can be done in their respective states at home as well. There is no need for representatives of the state governments to go all the way to Switzerland to sign MoUs with local companies.
So, when Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy and his official delegation signed agreements with Indian companies like Adani Group or Tata Sons on Wednesday, it is naturally surprising. It can be done even in Hyderabad.
Revanth Reddy had a meeting with Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani and his group company CEOs and exchanged 4 MOUs with the state Government for investments amounting to the tune of Rs 12,400 crore that would be invested in Telangana over the next few years.
The MoUs pertaining to setting up green energy projects, a Data Centre campus and Aerospace and Defence centre, besides a cement grinding unit. In fact, these projects were discussed during the visit of Adani Group representatives to Hyderabad a few days ago, but for signing the MoUs, they went all the way to Davos.
Similarly, the chief minister signed MoU with yet another local company Aragen Life Sciences for expansion of its existing project at Mallapur in Hyderabad with a new investment of Rs 2,000 crore, and creating 1,500 new jobs.
In 2022, too, when Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy attended the WEF summit at Davos, he, too, did the same thing. He signed MoUs with Adani Group and others for various projects, which were already finalised in Tadepalli.
Interestingly, the same MoUs were signed again at the Global Investors Summit held at Visakhapatnam on March 3!