The 5th edition of the Vibrant Gujarat investment summit, ambitiously tweaked to a scaled-down World Economic Forum format, got on its way here on Wednesday with some of India?s corporate leaders and representatives from a host of countries, both big and small, in attendance.
Chief minister Narendra Modi announced that delegates from 95 countries were participating in the meet, ?one third of the world?s countries are here.?
India Inc was represented by heavyweights like Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, Ratan Tata, Anand Mahindra, Adi Godrej, besides Gautam Adani, Uday Kotak, Chanda Kochar, Hari Bhartia, Ajit Gulabchand, GVK Reddy, Tulsi Tant and AM Naik. Also present were representatives from partner countries Canada and Japan.
Anil Ambani, who was one of the early speakerssaid, ?The thought that strikes me the most comes from two men who created wealth of a very different kind, The first ? the father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhiji. Gandhiji created for us enormous national wealth of values and principles that have inspired the best of us. Second my great father,the son of India a school teacher, the son of Gujarat, the son of Saurashtra, the father of entrepreneurship and capital markets….. and now there is this third individual, Narendrabhai Modi, one the greatest change agents for india in last one decade…….? he said.
Anil also set off some guffaws in the packed hall when he pointedly greeted his elder brother Mukesh. ?My respected elder brother Shri Mukesh Ambani,” he said, glancing at his stoic sibling, who kept staring away at the crowd. The elder Ambani did not return the gesture during his turn at the mike.
He sat through the function five chairs away from Anil, exchanging whispers with Narendra Modi flanking him.
Modi predictably hogged the inaugural show at the Mahatma Mandir, where speakers vied to shower encomiums on him. And predictably, they showered on Gujarat staggeringly huge investment promises though this time round, in keeping with the Gujarat CM?s latest obsession with ?inclusive development,? lip-service was also paid by all the main speakers representing India Inc to social sector development. The chief guest of the function, touted to be a global platform, was the Prime Minister of the small strife-torn east African nation, Rwanda.
In his speech, Modi in his new social reformer avataar, harped on spiritual humanism, Gandhian legacies, tolerance, justice and compassion, which he claimed were what his investment efforts were all about.