A big comedy is being noticed by many around the Davos business meeting in Switzerland.
Telangana government is proudly announcing MoUs signed at Davos, but interestingly, many of these are with local companies from Hyderabad itself.
These companies could have easily signed the same agreements in Hyderabad without flying all the way to Switzerland.
The Davos meet is actually meant to attract foreign investments, not local ones. But when states fail to bring in big foreign investors, they still need something to show on paper. So, MoUs with local companies sitting in Davos come in handy.
After all, who will seriously track whether these MoUs are implemented or quietly forgotten later?
This is not just a Telangana or Andhra Pradesh story. Even Maharashtra does the same.
Big names like Lodha, Raheja and Hiranandani are all based in Mumbai, very close to their Chief Minister. Yet, they too travel to Davos and sign deals there, turning the whole exercise into a grand show.
There, amid the biting cold, officials tremble while putting signatures on documents. Does Switzerland offer any special subsidy for signing MoUs in such weather? Not at all. Instead, it is Indian taxpayers’ money that gets spent in Switzerland.
Message is to get foreign investments, even if the real investment stays right back home.
