Amit Shah outlines Madhya Pradesh’s growth roadmap at Abhyudaya MP Growth Summit in Gwalior

Gwalior, December 26: Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Thursday said regional investment summits would play a critical role in ensuring balanced development of states, as he laid out the Centre and Madhya Pradesh government’s vision for industrial growth, infrastructure expansion and employment generation at the Abhyudaya Madhya Pradesh Growth Summit in Gwalior.

Paying tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his birth anniversary, Shah described him as a visionary leader who laid the foundation of modern India’s infrastructure, preserved the country’s cultural heritage and strengthened the journey from Swaraj to Susashan. He also recalled Vajpayee’s resolute leadership during the Kargil conflict and his role in positioning India as a nuclear power committed to peace.

Shah said the tradition of structured industrial summits began when Narendra Modi was chief minister of Gujarat through the Vibrant Gujarat initiative, which brought systematic investment planning to the states. He noted that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav had taken this approach further by initiating regional investment summits to ensure development across all regions of the state.

“Balanced development is essential for a state’s progress. Every region has hidden potential, and these regional summits are laying the foundation for all-round growth,” Shah said, adding that investment commitments of ₹2 lakh crore for a region were significant and transformative for local economies.

Highlighting Madhya Pradesh’s agricultural and industrial strengths, the Home Minister said cotton cultivation in Malwa and Chambal had declined earlier due to poor price realisation, but the PM MITRA Park had made cotton profitable again for farmers. He explained that the PM MITRA Park is based on the 5F vision—Farm to Fibre, Fibre to Factory, Factory to Fashion and Fashion to Foreign—ensuring fair prices to farmers and export-linked value chains.

Shah said Madhya Pradesh’s central geographical location gives it a natural logistics advantage, enabling supply to nearly half the country at low transportation costs. He stressed the need for symmetrical industrial development across regions bordering southern states, Delhi and western India to fully utilise this advantage. A multi-modal logistics park in Indore, he added, is already attracting companies to establish warehouses and hubs.

Citing infrastructure and governance improvements, Shah said Madhya Pradesh had shed its earlier “BIMARU” tag, first under Shivraj Singh Chouhan and now under Mohan Yadav’s leadership. He pointed to expanded highways, increased irrigation through Narmada water, surplus power availability, improved cleanliness, and record achievements such as winning the Krishi Karman Award seven times consecutively.

The Home Minister said Madhya Pradesh was emerging as a major MSME and startup hub, with 4.57 lakh new MSME units set up in just one year. Nearly 50 per cent of startups in the state are run by women, which he described as a strong example of women’s empowerment. He also noted the state’s performance in ease of doing business and its growing presence across sectors including agriculture, food processing, minerals, renewable energy, textiles, pharmaceuticals, IT and tourism.

At the national level, Shah said India had made a “late but impactful” entry into the semiconductor sector and would soon become self-reliant and begin exports. He highlighted rapid digital transformation under the Modi government, with internet users rising from 7 crore in 2014 to over 101 crore by September 2025, widespread 4G coverage and rapid rollout of 5G. India now accounts for nearly half of global digital transactions, he said, citing UPI’s scale and growth.

Shah also outlined major infrastructure gains since 2014, including expansion of highways, rural roads, airports, metro networks, railway electrification and optical fibre connectivity to over two lakh gram panchayats. He noted that manufacturing of Vande Bharat train components had also begun in Madhya Pradesh.

Concluding, Shah told investors and youth that Madhya Pradesh’s fertile land and strategic location offered unmatched opportunities. “Here, sowing investment yields returns many times over,” he said, adding that regionally balanced development would benefit both people and industry through sustainable, locally anchored growth.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia and other dignitaries were present at the summit.