The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Babulal Gaur has invited entrepreneurs in Maharashtra to invest in pharmaceutical sector in his state to take advantage of various tax incentives and subsidies. The CM was participating in an interactive session, "Opportunities & Potential of Investing in Madhya Pradesh," organized by FICCI yesterday.

Elaborating on the investment opportunities, the Chief Minister said, "We are emphasizing on the economic development across all industry sectors, especially IT, Pharma, Textiles & Food Processing. We realize the importance of better connectivity - physical, virtual and social - to achieve this objective. Also, we welcome investors to leverage the abundant natural resources that Madhya Pradesh offers."

Later addressing the media, Gaur said, "The State Government of Madhya Pradesh recognizes the need for faster economic development and is keen on attaining a sustainable 8 per cent economic growth. We are working towards this objective and have implemented certain policy and regulatory measures notably the Industrial Promotion Policy 2004. Apart from significant tax incentives and other subsidies to industries setting up base in Madhya Pradesh, the approval procedures have been made extremely simple to make the environment conducive for business investment."

Promoting the case of Madhya Pradesh further, Kailash Chawlaji, Industry Minister, Madhya Pradesh, said, "In the Industrial Promotion Policy 2004, we have made formulated sector-specific policies and incentives like exemption from stamp duty, registration charges, entry tax etc. Also, to generate employment and promote rapid industrial development, the Madhya Pradesh Government had adopted the SEZ policy for developing Special Economic Zones, earmarked as duty-free enclaves, in the state."

However, Madhya Pradesh Government is not providing any excise duty exemption like the Himachal Pradesh Government is doing in Baddi.

Meanwhile, some pharma giants like Ranbaxy, Nicholas Piramal, IPCA Labs have expressed interest in setting up units in state.