Mumbai: With Russian companies interested in doing business in Maharashtra, Russian business federations are seeking special industrial parks or zones for Russian firms in the state to take advantage of the “Make in India” and “Ease of doing business” programmes in the country.

Nikolay Kudashev, ambassador, Russian Federation in India and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had discussions regarding these special zones. This was revealed by Mr Kudashev during an interactive meeting of the All India Association of Industr-ies (AIAI) and the World Trade Centre, Mumbai.

Russian business federations suggested that a data bank of Russian and Indian companies be created with the assistance of the state government to facilitate exchange of shared complementarities in sectors such as science and technology, manufacturing and agro among others. Mr Kudashev informed about the recent 12.9 bn investment by ROSNEFT in ESSAR Refinery, and hoped there would be more investment flow into India.

He stressed that India and Russia shared a very long history and that the technologies transferred so far from the USSR or Russia to India were the basis of cooperation. Bokaro, Bhilai, Visakha-patnam steel plants and over 70 other projects were constructed in India with the assistance of the USSR back then.