In the beginning was Vibrant Gujarat. And then everyone else followed. States across the country are scrambling to woo investors with glitzy ‘summits’ that look to outdo each other in deals signed even as national gross domestic product (GDP) growth is projected to slow to 6.5 per cent for the financial year ending March 2018. West Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha have scheduled global summits in the calendar year 2018 to attract both domestic and foreign investments.

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The Trinamool government has organised a Global Business Summit on January 16-17 with the tag line ‘Bengal Means Business’.  Assam will have ‘Advantage Assam’ on February 3-4,  while ‘Magnetic Maharashtra: Convergence 2018’ is on February 18-20. The UP government will hold an investors’ summit on February 21-22, while Odisha has a ‘Make in Odisha Conclave’ planned for November.

This competitiveness, says Infrastructure & Logistics Federation of India President Sushil Jiwarajka, is a healthy trend. “(But) states will have to tackle ground realities and local issues such as land, supporting infrastructure and business friendly attitude,” he told DNA.