Ahmedabad, 9 January 2013
Picture This – A state gets ravaged by a twin blow of a killer earthquake in 2001 and communal riots in 2002. Hardly had it collected its remains from the destruction of the earthquake, it was torn apart by the riots. Nature’s fury coupled with man’s rage had devastated the state. Investor confidence in the state was at an all-time low. The future appeared very bleak.

What would be our expectation from such a state? At best, it would be surviving on relief packages and doles handed out by the Central Government with the people slowly getting their act together. If we had a shrewd politician at the helm, all he would have wanted was a special status to the state . Yes, we are talking about Gujarat, but happily for most, and sadly for others, what actually happened in Gujarat after 2002 was totally unexpected.

Ten years after being in such a precarious position, today Gujarat invariably lands on the podium wherever it competes. The reason for such a massive and rapid turnaround – Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. He realized that an influx of industries leads to an influx of investment which in turns leads to a spurt in employment. To facilitate the arrival of industries , he minimised the delays and roadblocks caused by bureaucracy. He was the first Chief Minister with a vision devoid of any political gains. That vision culminated in the form of Vibrant Gujarat Investor Summit which is held biannually since 2003.

As it has always been the case with him, anything associated with Narendra Modi cannot escape the criticism of Secular Media. Ditto with Vibrant Gujarat. Such an innocuous concept of inviting entrepreneurs under one roof attracts a large no of conspiracy theorists too. There are a lot of people now trying to show loopholes in the Vibrant Gujarat Success Story. Sorry, these loopholes do not exist. First of all, because it is not any normal mandatory government scheme which has to be evaluated in success percentage. Secondly because, it is just a voluntary initiative of Gujarat Government to fast-track the investment. So whatever investment is materializing from the MOUs, is actually a positive growth. There cannot be any negative about such an initiative. It should also be noted that routine investments do also take place apart from the Vibrant Gujarat Summit round the year. These numbers are often conveniently excluded.

A lot of hue and cry has been made about the actual investments made after the summits. 66,068 crore were pledged in the 2003 summit of which 52.5% investments materialized. That is around 34,686 crore. In 2005, 50.88% of the 1.06 lakh crore were actually invested taking this amount to around 53,932 crore. MOUs worth 4.65lakh crore were signed in 2007 and 35.24% of the investment has come so far. Thus the total investment is 1,63,866 Crore. The total investment promised in 2009 was 12.39 lakh crore out of which 15.10% is already invested. This amount turns out to be 1,87,089 crore. In 2011, MOUs worth 20.83 lakh crore were signed and investments worth 29,895 crore have been realized. In addition projects worth 2.49 lakh crore are under implementation. Government records also suggest that MoUs (from the first four Summits) totaling a further Rs5.03 lakh crore are under various stages of implementation.

Thus, while vested interests may try to paint a contrasting picture, the reality is that Vibrant Gujarat Summits are breaking their own records year after year. Even if we forget the MOU’s for a while, the actual investments rose from 34,686 crore in 2003 to 53,932 crore in 2005 to 1,63,866 crore in 2007 to 1,87,089 crore in 2009. Are these numbers a small feat?

Now if we add up the investments received and that under implementation, the figure that we get is a staggering 12,21,468 Crore. This has materialized in a period of 10 years only due to the untiring efforts of Narendra Modi and his team.

The Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2013 appears set to break all records in terms of MOUs, investments, ideas, innovations and entrepreneurship!

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