NEW DELHI: In an attempt to douse the political fire over Vedanta’s last-minute decision to shift its Rs 1.5 lakh crore semiconductor project to Gujarat, the conglomerate’s chairman Anil Agarwal took to Twitter on Wednesday to defend his decision . In a series of tweets, Agarwal said Vedanta and Foxconn were professionally evaluating sites for multi-billion dollar investments. He claimed that this is a scientific and financial process that usually takes several years.
“We started this about two years ago. Our team of professional internal and external agencies selected several states – Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, TN etc to help achieve our goal. “For the last 2 years, we have been engaged with each of these governments as well as central government and have received fantastic support,” he tweeted.
He said the company had decided on Gujarat a few months ago as the state lived up to expectations. “We have to start from one place, and based on professional and independent advice, we chose Gujarat,” he said, adding that the Maharashtra government had also approached the company with a highly competitive bid in a bid to outbid other states. .
According to him, the long-term multi-billion dollar project will change the course of Indian electronics. “We will create a pan-India ecosystem and are fully committed to invest in Maharashtra as well. Maharashtra will be our key for forward integration in our Gujarat JV,” Agarwal said. He added that his company will soon manufacture iPhones, TV sets and electric vehicles in Maharashtra.
