-A road going towards the summit was unusually packed with the movement of cars in the morning during 9:00 to 10:00 am. There was unusual traffic jam on the Science City road which usually is known as a very low traffic road.

-Parking was not a problem. A huge parking plot was developed near the Science City.

-Each invitee was given a card with specific color code. According to color, guests were directed to different entrances and later on to food courts.

-Background of the stage was created through visual screen.

-Some of those who were present:Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga, Kenyan Deputy Prime Minister Musalla Mudavadi, Kenyan Transport Minister Hirau Ali Mwakwere, Kenyan Industrialization Minister Henry Kosgey, Kenyan Roads Minister Chris Obure, Sri Lanka’s tourism minister Milinda Moragoda, Canadian member of Parliament Patrick Brown, Hidekai Demochi(Ambassador of Japan to India), Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Minister Zainul Abidin Rashid, Ugandan Minister of State of Finance Hopme Visijya, Ugandan Member of Parliament Anifa Kawooyee, Malawi’s High Commissioner Brain Bowler, Namibia’s High Commissioner Marten Kapewashaa, Italian Agriculture Minister Paolo Petrini, Korean Consul General Dong Yeren Kim,Mongolian Ambassador VoroShilov Enkhbold, Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Khalil Alkhonji, Virginia Port Authority’s MD Tom Capozzi, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Kumarmangalam Birla, Adi Godrej, Shashi Ruia, Gautam Adani, Sanjay Lalbhai, Anand Mahindra, MN Naik(L&T), RN Dhoot(Videocon), Ajit Gulabchand(UCC), AK Balyan(ONGC Director, Operations), Tulsi Tanti(Suzlon), Prasoon Mukherji(USCL), Nitin Sandesara(Sterling Biotech), Captain Gopinath(Deccan), Arun Bharatram(SRF), Indresh Batra(Jindal), BV Kalyani, N.Viththal, KV Kamath, Ashim Ghosh(Cellular Operators Asociation of India), OP Bhatt(State Bank of India Chairman), Sabir Bhatia(who sold Hotmail to Microsoft), Sanjay Lalbhai(Arvind), Sudhir Mehta(Torrent), Paresh Rawal(Actor), Shatrughna Sinha(Actor).

-The summit started with “Jay Jay Garvi Gujarat” song, sung by famous Gujarati singers Asit Desai, Gaurang Vyas, Saumil Munshi, Bankim Pathak and group together.

-A full size cut out of Swami Vivekananda was put behind the podium on the stage. 12th January is Swami Vivekanda’s birthday and it is well known that Chief Minister Modi is fan of Swami Vivekananda since early years of his life. When Chief Minister Modi delivered his speech standing beside Swami Vivekananda’s cut out, video cameras projecting the scene on large screens in the auditorium framed their visual to show Modi and Vivekananda side by side.

-Many foreign guests including Singapore’s Roads and Buildings Minister Zainul Rashid were amazed to see the amount of people present at the summit. Zainul Rashid said “I have never addressed such a huge audience. Singapore is a small country and everything there is Nano Nano Nano, but here in Gujarat even Nano is big big big.

-Film actors Paresh Rawal and Shatrughna Sinha were seen sitting in the front row. Shatrughna Sinha was here to sign MOU for setting up a film city. Paresh Rawal was here to support his friend Mihir Bhuta who signed MOU. Paresh said he was not here for any MOU. He would act in friend Shatrughna Sinha’s Film City.

-After Chief Secretory D. Rajgopalan’s welcome speech, KV Kamath and N Viththal delivered speeches. Viththal said that he was proud to be an IAS officer from Gujarat cadre. Gujarat state was formed in 1960 and he was IAS just after 15 days. Gujarat shaped his life. Viththal was India’s Vigilance Commissioner but now an entrepreneur who has signed MOU for setting up Gujarat Viththal Innovation City in Gujarat, just near Maharashtra border. Viththal’s project has Korean and German input.

-Essar’s Shashi Ruia in his speech named Gujarat’s Chief Secretory D.Rajagopalan and said that while serving new investors he should not treat companies that have already invested in the state as “Ghar ki murgi dal barabar.” Journalists were surprised to listen this. Speculations were immediately on about this statement.

-Youths were exited to listen to Sabir Bhatia(Hotmail fame) who talked about his idea of setting up a knowledge city like Stanford and Silicon valley. Sabir has named this city as “Nano City.” He said that talks with Carnegie Mellon university were on about collaboration.

-Among all the speakers only Sterling group’s Nitin Sandesara said some words in Gujarati. After starting his speech in Gujarati he soon switched over to English.

-Mukesh Ambani’s speech was shocking for most of the journalists who had earlier covered Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2007 also. 75 percent part of Mukesh Ambani’s 2009 summit speech was word to word, sequence to sequence same and ditto matching with 2007 summit speech. This was surprising. Mukesh didn’t announce any new investment but said that he had invested Rs 50,000 crore in the state in near past. Mukesh Ambani had promised a world class university in Gujarat when he addressed the gathering in year 2007’s Vibrant Gujarat Summit. The fact is that even after two years Ambani has even not started acquiring a land for this. Thanks God, he didn’t promise anything this time.

-When ISO 9001 certificate was handed over to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the announcer announced “ISO to the Chief Minister.” Many in audience were surprised and confused to listen this as it is known that ISO is awarded to only companies and not individuals. Actually ISO certificate was awarded to Chief Minister’s office and not to the Chief Minister.

-Industrialist Adi Godrej was surprisingly sitting in the audience and not on the stage. Nobody noticed Adi Godrej’s presence until a camera showed him sitting in a front row.

-Ratan Tata in his speech said that for Nano, land transfer happened in just three days in Gujarat, this was unmatched compare to any other place Tata had experienced before. Tata said “I had said in earlier summit that You are stupid if you are not in Gujarat. Then I followed my own advice and this time I want to say that I am no more stupid any longer.”

-Member of UK parliament Barry Gardiner is one of the true friends of Gujarat.Barry represents Brent North, a constituency where Indians constitute 50% of the population. Most of them are Gujaratis. Barry also chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group of UK-India Trade.

-Ambassador of Japan to India in his speech read out Japan’s Ex Premier Yoshiro Mori’s message(which was in a size of small speech but was very touchy and heartily) for this summit.

-Chief Minister Narendra Modi started his speech in English and after some time switched over to Hindi, then again to English. At one time when Modi’s English written speech paper felled down from the podium, he collected it and started reading it in English. Modi is excellent orator, one of the best in India, but he seems always uncomfortable while reading out speech. He reads the speech only when it’s in English.

-Modi in his speech said one very important and interesting thing. He said that for Gujarat there should be equal development in industry, agriculture and service sectors. Each of these sectors should contribute 33% to state’s total growth. Only this strategy would be able to save the state from any slow down or recession. Suppose if there is a drought, then in that condition the state would survive on service and industry sectors if this strategy is implied, or suppose there is a slow down in industrial sector, the state then would be able to survive on agricultural and service sectors.

-Modi narrating his third dimension of thinking said “When you present a glass half filled with water and half empty, some people would say that the glass is half full and some others would say that it is half empty. But I will say that it is half full with the water and rest half full with the air.” Pretty excellent new quote by Modi.

-There was literally chaos at lunch counters meant for Yellow and Red card holders. Food was not available for those who came some minutes late. Forget food, even dishes were not available. There was not a single dish available. Some guests took whatever food in bowl, some others literally washed used dishes for use. Some used catering tray as a dish. Insufficient arrangements were shameful. One genuine foreign guest with Indian background said me that “Science City is such a place from where we can’t get food even after spending some bucks. Parking was away. We could only survive on Vibrant’s food arrangements. But unfortunately there was a chaos. No food, no dish, no body to care or listen to us on this. After 10:00 am to 2:00 pm marathon session full of speeches, we were expecting only some food. Investment is fine!! However it should be noted that Silver, Golden pass holders who were investors and foreign delegates faced no problem on food counter allotted to them.

Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit 2009 links