Vibrant Summit, Pravasi Divas lines blur

“There is a sudden spurt in interest about India. There is a view among NRIs that India is changing. People genuinely want to know about the change that is happening in the country after the new government took charge. Issues related to corruption, bureaucratic hassles surrounding setting up of a business enterprise, renewable energy, smart cities are some of the questions that the NRIs are having (before the PBD),” said Charu Mathur, Chief Executive Officer, Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC), an initiative of Union Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) and CII.

“Even by very conservative estimates we will be organising over 500 pre-scheduled B2B meetings during the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas. However, some of these meetings will extend to inaugural of Vibrant Gujarat on January 11 as some of the PBD delegates will be staying back for the Vibrant summit,” she added.

“Earlier, B2B meetings were organised between registered Indian and NRI delegates. For the first time, we are going outside registered PBD delegates and are also organising offline meetings,” Mathur said adding that OIFC was helping the NRIs to not on set up business meetings, but also find the apt partners for their planned business ventures.

Even the two Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Pavilions set up in Gandhinagar are part of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Trade Show 2015. Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel will together throw open both the PBD and Vibrant exhibition on Tuesday evening. Of the 15-odd pavilions within the Vibrant Gujarat Global Trade Show, two are dedicated to PBD.

“There is also a special pavilion within the Vibrant Trade Show where ample space has been given to the Central government to display their projects, programmes and policies,” said a state government official who said that the exhibition was a culmination of both Vibrant and PBD events.

Meanwhile, OIFC officials said the Gujarat government’s effort to popularise Vibrant Gujarat Summit which had helped in creating a “recall” for the summit among the NRI population across the globe. This year, NRIs were mostly interested in exploring business ventures in states like Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chattishgarh and others. Most of the business queries from NRIs are for sectors like technology, solar renewable, personal finance, healthcare, education sectors, official sources said.

The highest number of participation for the PBD will be from the US and the UK, while the maximum business interest has been shown by NRIs living in the Gulf Countries, OIFC officials added.

“The NRIs living in countries like the USA are looking at investing in Information Technology start-ups in India, while those in African countries like Kenya — which comprises a large number of Gujaratis — are not willing to come to India, but are keep to tap the trade opportunities with Gujarat. Similarly, NRIs living in Canada are looking at business opportunities in Punjab, while those living in the Gulf are keen to invest in south India,” Mathur added.