Following is an excerpt from a report on this in Asian Age. Economic Times also reports on this.

India is set to become a potential goldmine as investment announcements surged to Rs 1,75,629 crores for the months of August and September 2007. The bulk of this will go to the petroleum sector, especially in states of Orissa and West Bengal, says the Assocham Eco Pulse Study.

The study on ‘Investment Announcements’ for August and September 2007 found that of the total investments announced, the petroleum sector attracted the maximum number of investment announcements, totaling to Rs 53,300 crores with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and the Reliance Group, planning to mop up Rs 43,500 crores and Rs 8,000 crores, respectively.

Orissa attracted investment plans of Rs 55,800 crores, especially in steel and oil refinery capacity reflecting the high investment spree by the companies in the core infrastructure sector.

… The AEP tracked investment announcements made by 70 companies in the Indian private sector during August-September 2007 with investments plans ranging between two to ten years across various sectors like petroleum, steel, hospitality, real estate.

With major public private partnership projects in line, West Bengal is ranked second by AEP as the Indian companies made investment announcements worth Rs 31,200 crores in last two months. The major investors in the state would be Jai Balaji Industries, a Kolkata based steel company that announced capital expenditure of Rs 16,000 crores followed by IOC with Rs 14,500 crores and DLF Rs 700 crores.

Mumbai continues to remain the most favoured location by the services-based companies, which announced Rs 8,500 crore capex plans in areas of hospitality, entertainment and IT. Pune attracted Rs 1,334 crores investments making Maharashtra rank third with Rs 9,834 crores after Orissa and West Bengal.