Vibrant Gujarat: From modest beginnings to India’s biggest business fair
Few would have imagined that what started off as a tentative bid to re-establish Gujarat, a state battered by a killer quake in 2001 and bloody riots a year later would become one of India’s biggest business summits within a decade.
The theme of the first summit, held in October-November 2003, was ‘Re-establishing Gujarat As Investment Destination’. At a time when most looked at Gujarat with doubt, a group of Ahmedabad businessmen led by Gautam Adani and Karsanbhai Patel attempted an almost impossible turnaround. The event was a modest success with about 80 MoUs worth Rs 60,000 crore signed.
But it laid a solid foundation for Brand Gujarat and served as an image make-over exercise for then CM Narendra Modi, who was battling the taint of riots, as the new poster-boy of development. A tireless politician, Modi worked hard to build on the initial success. The next summit, held in January 2005, had Modi sending his ministers and bureaucrats to different parts of the world to attract investment – he himself led delegations to several countries. About 20 countries took part, giving it an global flavour.
The third summit in 2007 was bigger with Japan becoming the first country to partner the event. Modi’s moment came in October 2008, in the depths of a global meltdown, when Tata Motors announced shifting of its small car plant from Singur to Sanand. This was seen as Ratan Tata’s clear endorsement of ‘Gujarat model’.
Modi grabbed the opportunity in hardselling Gujarat as the most efficiently governed state. While Tata made the famous ‘You are foolish if you are not in Gujarat’ remark, industrialists like Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal were the first ones to say Modi deserved to become the PM.
Miles away, in the UK, the House of Commons passed a resolution supporting the summit. And, to everybody’s surprise, delegations from several Muslim countries participated in 2009. Modi broke his own records in every summit – investment promises grew and with it the scale of the event – even as critics raised questioned the lofty pledges.
In 2011, Modi modelled the event on Davos – a networking cum business event – and rechristened it ‘Vibrant Gujarat: Global Business Hub’. The number of participating countries shot up – from 101 in 2011 to 164 in 2013. By this time, Modi had marketed himself well by completely co-branding himself with his vibrant state which catapulted him to the national stage.
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