Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit: Industry captains pledge investments worth over Rs 2 lakh crore on Day 1

Tata Sons’ Chairman N Chandrasekharan, who traced the group’s origins in Gujarat from Jamshedji Tata’s birthplace Navsari to the first company Tata Chemicals founded in 1939, said that the group was now expanding its footprint from Sanand to Dholera Special Investment Region.

The Tata group would also expand the C295 aircraft manufacturing from Vadodara to Dholera.

On October 30, 2022, Modi had laid the foundation stone in Vadodara of a C295 aircraft manufacturing plant of the Tata-Airbus consortium, which will manufacture the transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force.

Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited, Mukesh Ambani, and Chairman of Adani Group, Gautam Adani – the only industry leaders to attend every Vibrant Gujarat summit since the first one in 2003 when Modi was the Gujarat chief minister – promised investments in setting up a green energy complex at Jamnagar and a green energy park at Khavda in Kutch, respectively.

Jeffrey Chun, global CEO of South Korean firm Simmtech – a leader in PCB manufacturing – announced a “co-location investment” along with Micron’s semiconductor assembly and testing facility in Sanand.

Coming ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the VGGS, which was last held in 2019, is being organised for the first time after the Covid-19 pandemic and in the backdrop of Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars.

Ruler of Abu Dhabi and President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan – the chief guest of the 10th edition of VGGS – addressed Modi as “a dear brother” in his brief speech in Arabic. Modi, who had held a roadshow with Al Nahyan on Tuesday, reciprocated by addressing him as “my brother”.

Modi said UAE and India had signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on developing foodparks, cooperation in the renewable energy sector and investments in innovative healthcare. “UAE companies have agreed to make investments worth billions of dollars in port infrastructure… UAE sovereign wealth funds will begin operations in GIFT City and Transworld is about to launch aircraft and ship leasing activities here. A huge chunk of the credit of the heights that India and UAE relations have reached, goes to my dear brother His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed,” Modi said.

He also expressed pride that it was under India’s presidency of the G20 that the African Union became its permanent member.

In a country seminar organised by the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce on sustainable global supply chains, German ambassador Philipp Ackermann said India might emerge as a “major game changer” in the current world scenario, as it stood “on the cusp of a supply chain transformation”.

In a statement, Ackermann referred to the “deep shocks during the last three years” that hit the world economy in “the outburst of Covid-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the deteriorating trade relationship between the US and China, followed by the lsrael-Gaza war and the current shipping crisis in the Red Sea”, which led to supply chain bottlenecks and disrupted production processes across the world.

Ackermann stressed that the supply chains would have to adapt to the new realities. “While efficiency will remain a priority and resilience has emerged as a key factor shaping the chains of tomorrow.”

State Additional Chief Secretary (Industries and Mines), S J Haider, refused to give details on the number of MoUs inked or investment pledged in the run-up to summit and on Wednesday.

He, however, said, “I can only say that the MoUs inked are large in number in different sectors but the numbers will be disclosed by the state government at an appropriate time at the appropriate forum… Generally MoUs have been signed in areas of sustainability, renewables, circularity of economy… we can see maximum MoUs were signed in these sectors.”