Vibrant Gujarat: How a state-level promotional event has turned national
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was his usual eloquent self at the Vibrant Gujarat summit and made his by-nowfamiliar sales pitch on India as the new investment destination for the world. But he added something new, this time around. A justification for the hype that is the hallmark of such investment summits increasingly held by practically every big state: while gargantuan sums of investment are promised, only a tiny fraction actually gets translated into projects, plant and machinery. But that does not matter, on two counts. One, the sums promised are so huge that even the tiny fraction that materialises as realised investment is substantial. Second, and this is where the Prime Minister offered an insight, such hype prods the government to be on its toes, as well.
Vibrant Gujarat started off as an event to project the state of Gujarat as an investment destination and, of course, its chief minister. But today, the event has become something much bigger. It has grown into India’s showcase to the world. World leaders have flocked to the summit, from US secretary of state John Kerry and the UK trade minister to the secretary general of the United Nations. Many large corporations of the world send their representatives to the meet, not so much to invest in the state as to mark their presence and network with the higher echelons of Indian business and Indian policymakers who are invariably present. The big kahunas of global politics and business congregate in Gujarat not so much on account of their interest in one particular state of India as because of India’s growing importance in the world economy.
Imagine what a savvy Gujju leader would have done, if such a prize collection of target interlocutors were assembled at someone else’s expense in, say, Mumbai. He would open a kiosk for his particular business somewhere close to the venue, if not right on the premises of the assembly, to make his pitch. It is time other states took advantage of Vibrant Gujarat’s transcendence of provincial appeal to set up shop at the Gandhinagar event. Who could possibly object?
