Punjab Attracts ₹12,250 Crore Investment Commitments at Three-Day Summit

The three-day Progressive Punjab Investors Summit concluded with investors committing to invest about ₹12,250 crore in the state over the next three to four years. Manufacturers from various sectors, ranging from steel and textiles to compressed biogas (CBG) and orthopedic support equipment, expressed confidence in supporting a new phase of industrial growth in Punjab. Welcoming the investment commitments, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann said the initiatives would help take the state’s economic development to new heights. Plaksha University, which also hosted the summit, pledged to invest ₹5,000 crore in the state. The Indian arm of the German biofuel company Verbio India announced plans to invest ₹4,000 crore in Punjab. Nahar Industries declared an investment of ₹1,500 crore, while Tynor Orthotics announced an investment of ₹1,000 crore to expand its business operations. The company aims to become the world’s largest manufacturer of orthopedic support equipment across 100 countries. In addition, acrylic and worsted yarn manufacturer Ganga Acrowools announced plans to invest ₹750 crore to expand its operations. Company president Amit Thapar said the firm had initially planned to invest ₹250 crore but decided to triple the amount after being encouraged by the favourable industrial environment and industry-friendly policies in Punjab. The summit began last Friday, when leading business leaders, including Lakshmi N. Mittal, executive chairman of ArcelorMittal, announced investment commitments of ₹10,000 crore. Punjab’s Industry and Investment Promotion Minister Sanjeev Arora said the objective of the summit was to present Punjab as a key investment destination and demonstrate the facilities available to investors in the state. He emphasized that the aim was not merely to sign agreements that might not translate into actual investments, as had sometimes happened in the past, but to secure concrete commitments from industry leaders. The summit saw participation from nearly 6,000 delegates and included around 30 sessions covering different industrial sectors. Investors showed the most interest in textiles, steel, information technology, and IT-enabled services. On the final day of the summit, Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann addressed industrialists and assured full government support and concessions for industries. He said the event had created a positive environment for industrial growth and would accelerate the state’s economic progress. Mann also announced that the state government would hold a review session after six months to assess the progress of the investment proposals and projects announced during the summit. He noted that around 30 sessions were held over three days, which would help boost economic development in Punjab. The Chief Minister said the current government had inherited debt, complaints, and poor governance from previous administrations but was working to revive the state’s economy. He added that the earlier practice of forcing agreements on industrialists had ended and that the government was now focusing on promoting large-scale industrialization. Cabinet ministers Harbhajan Singh ETO and Barinder Goyal, Chief Secretary K. A. P. Sinha, and other officials also addressed the gathering. During the summit, a session on information technology and IT-enabled services received a strong response from investors. Seema Bansal, Vice Chairperson of the Punjab Development Commission (PDC), said the Punjab government under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann was committed to developing Mohali as a Tier-1 city in the IT sector. She added that the government was focusing on governance, academic institutions, and infrastructure to achieve this goal. Several manufacturing industries in the state, she noted, have already successfully incorporated artificial intelligence technologies into their production processes.