Maharashtra , Delhi lead in FDI inflow

If foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow is any parameter to determine good governance, Congress-ruled Maharashtra and Delhi score over other states —whether run by the BJP, estranged partner Left Front in West Bengal or ally DMK in Tamil Nadu. While the total FDI inflow to Maharashtra in the first four months of the current fiscal was $4.3 billion, and for Delhi $1.6 billion, the two BJP-ruled states of Karnataka and Gujarat managed to retain the number 4 and 6 slots respectively. Bihar and Jharkhand failed to catch the companies’ attention with almost nil FDI in the last four years pledged to them. Other NDA states like Orissa, Punjab, Himachal and Uttarakhand also failed to figure on the FDI radar in the current year. BJP-ruled Karnataka had an FDI inflow of $1 billion in the April-July 2008 period while the party’s good governance mascot Narendra Modi in Gujarat scraped through to number 6 by managing $706 million in the same period. The two states, however, received over $3 billion in the last four years. Since April 2005, while Karnataka has received $3.75 billion in FDI, Gujarat $3.2 billion. At third slot in the list of top FDI destinations in India, Tamil Nadu received $1,023 million in the first four months of this fiscal, with the total investments in the state since 2005 being $3,161 million. West Bengal ranked 7th with $400 million receipts in the April-July 2008 period and $1 billion since 2005.