Maha's trillion dollar chase: MITRA recommends monetising idle public assets, becoming AI capital

Mumbai, Aug 13 (IANS) The Maharashtra Institution for Transformation (MITRA), established by the state government on the lines of NITI Aayog, in its roadmap to a one trillion dollar economy, has made a strong case for increasing investment to 37 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) from the current rate of 25 per cent.

MITRA, in its presentation to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, has said that with the rise in investment, the state will have a 1.5 trillion dollar economy by 2028.

It has strongly recommended that the state government actively consider raising international capital and monetise ideal public assets to boost gross capital formation. It has also suggested the development of sovereign AI for Maharashtra to become the AI capital of India.

MITRA has cited several challenges the state government faces in capital formation. ''Maharashtra’s budget has only 12 per cent outlay on capital formation. State’s gross capital formation as part of GSDP is only 23-24 per cent and to reach a 1 trillion dollar economy by 2028 the gross capital formation must reach 36.9 per cent. Raising taxes or reducing subsidies is not a viable option and other options need to be explored for raising international capital and the monetisation of idle public assets."

As a part of MITRA’s strategy to tap various funding sources, the state government has raised 188 million dollars from the World Bank for the strengthening of districts, 500 million dollars from ADB for strengthening tertiary health care, 280 million dollars from World Bank under SMART project, 500 million dollars for flood water diversion wherein Krishna River water to be diverted to drought-prone areas and 1 billion dollars from Allied Irish Bank (AIB) for providing 5 lakh solar pumps to farmers. Furthermore, the state government will mobilise Rs 15,000 crore from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for completing incomplete irrigation projects.

Additionally, MITRA has suggested that the state government focus on IT and ITeS, Agriculture, Logistics and Skill development to achieve the 1 trillion dollar economy goal. In a bid to develop Maharashtra as the AI Capital of India, MITRA has recommended the development of sovereign AI with the establishment of a joint government and private sector company with 49 per cent - 51 per cent equity holding through a competitive selection process involving credible IT companies. IT firms specialising in AI, machine learning (ML) and Quantum Computing will have free access to large, high-quality, machine-reachable public datasets for the first two years. It has emphasised the need for establishing an Investment Fund to finance AI and Quantum Computing startups.

In the case of Agriculture, MITRA has recommended setting up FPO (Farmer Producer Organisation) incubators with all agricultural universities to support and nurture FPO growth. Besides, it has recommended the introduction of a PPP scheme to strengthen the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) infrastructure (One APMC per district).

As far as logistics are concerned, MITRA has recommended competitive power tariffs for logistics parks (cost-free access to the national power grid and captive power), modified Logistics Policy to incorporate height relaxation and given a mandate of 10-25 per cent apprentice to all Logistics Parks.

To push skill development, MITRA has recommended introducing job-ready certification courses with the involvement of corporates, developing a mobile application for all available shilling courses, matching job vacancies and generating an employable pool through interventions in apprenticeship.