Maharashtra will become a trillion dollar economy within five years, says CM Devendra Fadnavis

Maharashtra will become a trillion dollar economy within five years if it does not face any droughts in that period, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Thursday (February 26, 2026). He was responding to the discussion on the Governor’s opening address in the Legislative Assembly during the ongoing Budget Session. From the debate over the three-language policy, to the accusations over the MOUs signed in Davos, to Tipu Sultan controversy, to Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute and Marathi medium schools, he spoke on several issues.

Speaking about the debate over the comparison between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Tipu Sultan, he said that the government has objection to it. “We have an objection when we are told that Tipu Sultan was as great a king as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, and that he should be eulogised as much as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is eulogised. The problem is, unfortunately, that the history of our country has been tampered with so much, that we were told for years that Tipu Sultan was a great king. But we were never told that he had butchered 75,000 Hindus and 33,000 Nairs. He fought the British to save his own kingdom. Now, we unravel the true history,” he said.

Slamming the Congress government for the old History textbooks, he said, “In the earlier government, for 70 years, Mughal empire was given 17 pages in NCERT. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was given one page. Now, the Modi government has given Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the Maratha empire 20 pages. Had we taught history at the right time, no Muslim of this country would have thought of Aurangzeb as a hero. But we never taught true history,” he said.

Trillion dollar economy

Calling Maharashtra the ‘startup capital’ of India, he said the state was gallopping towards becoming a trillion dollar economy. “In 2012-13, our economy was $13 Lakh crore. Today, it is $51 Lakh crore. If the State does not face any major drought over the next few years, we will become a trillion dollar economy within the next four-five years. But if we face a drought, its impact is seen for two-three years,” he said. Maharashtra’s share in the country’s GDP has been constantly increasing, he added.

Davos presence significant

Justifying the visit of a large government contingent to Switzerland for the Davos World Economic Forum, he said that over 75% of the MoUs turned into investments for the State. Adding that the MOUs were signed with companies which have foreign investments and foreign partners, he said that some of the biggest data centre companies came on-board during the summit. “To remain relevant in the global economic landscape, participation in the Davos World Economic Forum is essential,” he said, adding that Maharashtra alone accounted for 39% of the total Foreign Direct Investment in the country.

Language debate

Discussing on the debate over the three-language policy in primary education for which the State government had faced flak, he said that the decision was taken by the Uddhav Thackeray government in 2022. Giving a timeline of the formation of the Mashelkar committee report, he said that the Mashelkar committee had submitted its report in September 2021, recommending English and Hindi as second languages from Grade 1 to Grade 12. He said, the report was presented to the cabinet in January 2022, and that Uddhav Thackeray signed on it as the Chief Minister after the cabinet had okayed it.

“We are being slammed, though the decision was taken by Uddhav Thackeray. But let me tell you, in our government, only Marathi is compulsory,” he added. He also said that he wanted to place on record that he wanted to take credit for bringing the Thackeray cousins together.

“It is important to be multi-lingual. It leads to the development of brain. It was in Modiji’s government that engineering, medical education was brought about in mother-tongue,” he said.

Adding that the government was committed to resolve the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute, he said that all parties were unanimous on the issue. Adding that the government had appointed the best of lawyers, he said the matter was before the Supreme Court. “It has happened thrice that one of the three judges is either from Maharashtra or from Karnataka. That might lead to bias, so the court avoids it,” he said.