TNI Bureau: After a landmark victory in the recent assembly polls, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was lauded by the top business tycoons and who’s who of Indian industrialists, diplomats and academicians at the sixth edition of the Vibrant Gujarat summit for his leadership quality.
The top industrialists including Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Adi Godrej, Anil Ambani, Anand Mahindra, and diplomats of more than 50 countries including the US, Japan and the UK, on Friday hailed Modi, who has the potentialities to lead the campaign for country’s main opposition in the next general elections.
No doubt, the business tycoons have expanded their empires outside India, but it is very difficult to manage a state and take it on the path of development for which Modi is dragging the attention of the developed countries like US and UK.
“Modi dreams with his eyes open,” said Anil Ambani. He also called him a “king among kings”, who is ruling the state for fourth time. Anand Mahindra praised Modi for the growth of the state saying: “It’s now time to see a Gujarat model being replicated in China”.
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Tata repeated his speech that he had made on a previous occasion that “One would be stupid not to invest in Gujarat”. Mukesh Ambani, who is a big admirer of Modi said that Reliance Industries is committed for an investment of 1 lakh crore in the state in the next three years.
Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2013, which commenced at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar on Friday morning, witnessed many companies promised to sign MoUs to invest in the state. Earlier, MoUs worth 20 lakh crore were signed in 2011 and investment commitments worth 12 lakh crore were made in 2009.
The biggest business Summit was attended nearly 7,000 people. Ajit Gulabchand, chairman of Hindustan Construction Company, appreciated Modi saying, “Nehru advocated higher participation of the state in the economy, whereas Modi is the first politician to publicly outline that government should act as a facilitator by having conducive policies, robust infrastructure and ease of doing business”.
Like the previous years’ Summit, Modi, who is believed to be BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 elections, was the big boost at the Summit where more than 18,000 MoUs are expected to be signed. This time, Shashi Ruia of Essar Group promised to invest Rs 15,000 crore and Jubilant Lifesciences’ Hari Bhartia will invest Rs 1,500 crore in Gujarat. Gautam Adani is planning to invest Rs 5,000 crore and ABG Shipyard is likely to invest Rs 5,000 crore in a greenfield shipyard.