An army of business and political delegations from over 90 countries and 19 states of India, comprising over 30,000 delegates, attended the 4-hour-long inaugural ceremony of the fifth edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit .
An army of business and political delegations from over 90 countries and 19 states of India, comprising over 30,000 delegates, attended the 4-hour-long inaugural ceremony of the fifth edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar on Wednesday.
The two-day summit, now being touted as the largest gathering of the who’s who of the India Inc, saw pledging of 2,276 MoUs, valuing over Rs15 lakh crore worth of business and knowledge-sharing investments in Gujarat on the first day.
Flanked by the Prime Minister of Rwanda and chief minister of Chhattisgarh, ambassador of Japan and high commissioner of Canada, chief minister Narendra Modi was showered with praise by the captains of business and industry.
The fifth summit will be marked for the image makeover of the event and Modi. It was evident that a conscious attempt was made to shift the focus from investment to knowledge sharing and to lift the event to that of international stature.
A sober and contemplative looking Modi spoke in English as part of the image makeover attempt, targeted at transcending his position from a regional leader to that of a statesman.
The fresh new venue added spunk to the event which had two developed nations as official partners - Japan and Canada. The investment figures increased substantially, the details of MoUs more pronounced.
Paradoxically, despite the hype, the tone of the event this time is a tad subtle, much like a chic corporate event rather than a political platform screaming its cause.
The congregation became a melting pot of businessmen from different parts of the country uniting for the purpose of creating wealth.
Leading Gujarati businessmen Gautam Adani, Sudhir Mehta and Pankaj Patel were given a place of pride on the stage. A surprise glamour quotient was added by the presence of actor Preity Zinta in crisp corporate attire. The stage was shared by the likes of Chanda Kochhar of ICICI, Anand Mahindra, Ratan Tata.
Interestingly, both the Ambani brothers Mukesh and Anil shared the stage and Anil even made a distinct reference to ‘respected’ Tata and respected elder brother Mukesh. Business honchos included Adi Godrej, Ajit Gulabchand, AM Naik, Uday Kotak, Subhash Chandra, Tulsi Tanti and others.
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