Gujarat Leads The Way

Investment in Gujarat is perhaps indicative of good times ahead in the country.

- Vaishali Dar & Sreerupa Sil

THE 8TH EDITION OF VIBRANT Gujarat Global Summit inaugurated by its pioneer, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted several foreign leaders and top global and Indian CEOs. This biennial summit was launched by Modi way back in 2003 when he was the chief minister of Gujarat.

The US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, Poland, Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden and UAE partnered this event. Around 20 heads of state and ministers from across the world attended this B2B and B2G event. Several top Indian business heads such as Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani, Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, Tata Group’s Ratan Tata and Reliance ADA Group chairman Anil Ambani were present at the event.

From 80 MoUs back in 2003 to more than 25,000 MoUs signed in 2017, the summit has come a long way. Gujarat deputy CM Nitin Patel said, “As many as 25,578 MoUs have been signed at this edition of the summit, which is 2,500 more than the number that were signed at the last edition in 2015. The highest number of MoUs were signed for MSMEs amounting to 18,533 MoUs, followed by 5,938 MoUs for large scale industries and 1,107 MoUs for technology sharing.”

As per the data provided by Gujarat Industry Commissionerate, from Rs 66,068 crore in 2003, this edition enjoyed close to Rs 30 lakh crore worth of investment.

“India is a bright spot in the global economy,” said Modi. “World Bank, IMF and other institutions have projected even better growth in the coming days. In 2014-15, India contributed 12.5 per cent to global growth. Its contribution to global growth is 68 per cent higher, than its share of the world economy.”