When the most politically powerful state in India, Gujarat, which is founded on a strong macroeconomic story, lays down the red carpet for investors, little wonder that the biggest corporations would rush to make their investment plans public. At the event inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the biggest business leaders made a beeline to explore and exploit the best opportunities.
Two of the biggest Indian entrepreneurs, home-grown Gujaratis, who made it to the top of the business world, were there to show their personal endorsement of the growth story of the state. Gautam Adani pledged a total investment of over Rs 2 lakh crores, creating over one lakh jobs in the state over the course of the next five years.
Mukesh Ambani, declaring his roots and calling Reliance a Gujarati company, pledged to spread investments of the mega-conglomerate into green growth, 5G, AI, job creation and inclusive growth. Mr Ambani will also develop a gigantic energy complex spread over 5,000 acres. Reliance, too, pledged its total commitment to backing Prime Minister Modi’s push to ensure an Indian city hosted the Olympics in the future. Earlier, Mr Adani, too, had spoken of ensuring a $100 billion investment into the green economy.
The Tata Group will be building a semiconductor facility and set up a lithium ion storage battery factory, both investments being in future energy-related areas, N. Chandrasekaran announced. Japanese giant Suzuki will bring in another Rs 35,000 crores for establishing another manufacturing facility to ramp up its production as well as diversifying their product line.
The Vibrant Gujarat Investor Summit has now completed two decades, and in a laudable way, creating a friendly competition between Indian states. It should continue to foster this spirit between states to ensure they have their best infrastructure, an open and business-friendly policy, good leadership and a responsive bureaucracy to ensure they can optimise growth.
After all, India will grow only when its states grow.
