By DC Correspondent

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Visakhapatnam: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said about Rs 3.6 lakh crore was given to 22 states so far under 50-year interest-free assistance. Addressing CII GCC Business Summit here, she also said India’s capital investment grew to 4.1 per cent (including states) of the GDP in 2024-25 from 1.7 per cent in 2013-14.”The central government has also provided 50-year interest-free assistance to the state governments so that they can have their capital assets increased (with) money to spend on them. The Centre has given 50-year interest-free money to all states and the total of what has been given is about 3.6 lakh crore till now. That is the last four years.”And 22 states have actually used it, resulting in recording more than 10 per cent growth in capital expenditure from their own resources,” she said. Sitharaman further said during the last 11 years, 88 airports have been operationalised, 31,000 kilometers of new rail tracks have been laid, Metro networks expanded over four-fold, port capacities have also doubled and the national highway network extended by 60 per cent.According to her, a massive push has been undertaken by the Centre to address the infrastructure and logistics bottleneck. “Capital investment has increased from 1.7 per cent of the GDP that was in 2013-14. In 2024-25, it reached 3.2 per cent of our GDP with effective capital expenditure being actually 4.1 per cent. When I say effective, I mean not just the central government’s expenses, but also state governments putting their capital expenditure money into it,” the FM said.On Global Capability Centres (GCC), the minister said the state governments are playing a very critical role in deepening India’s GCC advantage, shaping and enabling policy environment. In the last Union Budget, the Centre proposed a national framework to guide states in promoting GCC’s in emerging Tier 2 cities, she said while underscoring that Andhra Pradesh is a very strong case, an illustration of the success of policy-led leadership in leveraging state-level strengths to align with national priorities.By working together, the Centre and state, industry associations like CII and global companies, it can be assured that India’s GCC strength can be furthered and bring the broad-based and future-ready sector to benefit our people, she said.”And finally, this will not only consolidate India’s leadership in the GCC landscape, but also create new opportunities for innovation, job creation, and inclusive regional development, contributing eventually towards Viksit Bharat 2047,” Sitharaman said.