Yogi to replicate 'Vibrant Gujarat' for big ticket investments

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is working to replicating the Vibrant Gujarat model to attract big ticket investors in its own UP Investors’ Summit 2018.

Vibrant Gujarat, termed as the Davos of the East, is the biannual global investors’ summit started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his stint as the chief minister of his home state. The summit has promoted Gujarat as a top investment destination and cultivated a pro-business image for the state. The last Vibrant Gujarat edition was held in January 2017.

Now, the Yogi government is drafting the blueprint to replicate Vibrant Gujarat in its investors’ meet scheduled during 21-22 February, 2018. A dozen investment focal areas have been identified to be showcase at the summit, including agriculture, agro-based industry, food processing, MSME, IT & electronics, tourism & manufacturing to match the scale of the investors’ summit in Gujarat.

“We are imbibing all the positives that the other states have to offer with regards to the investors’ meet. Since Gujarat is the leading industrialised state, we are looking to learn from their experiences,” UP industrial development minister Satish Mahana told Business Standard.

Gujarat is among India’s wealthiest states with heavy industries including chemicals, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, gems, textiles, cement and engineering. It is the global top producer of processed diamonds and India’s largest denim manufacturer.

Vibrant Gujarat had emulated the Davos Forum concept to attract global investors and business leaders, although it has lost some of its sheen after Modi shifted to the Centre on becoming the PM.

Gujarat pegs its investment conversion rate at almost 70 percent, although the opposition counters this claim. Nonetheless, Vibrant Gujarat is the most recognisable investors’ asset in India and has forced other states to follow suit, including UP, West Bengal, Rajasthan etc.

Mahana noted the objective was to learn how Gujarat had been able to attract industry from across sectors to invest in the state and stay put. He said UP would take inputs from other progressive states too in this regard. “I am personally visiting places such as Maharashtra, Karnataka and Hyderabad to study their industrial model.”

Modi is likely to inaugurate the UP Investors’ Summit aimed at attracting private investment to the tune of Rs 1,00,000 crore.

As a prelude, the government has lined up investors’ road shows in six top cities, including New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Kolkata. While New Delhi leg has been completed, Bengaluru and Hyderabad would witness the events on December 18 and 19 respectively. Yogi is himself slated to meet to industrialists in the Mumbai road show on December 22.

About 5,000 business delegates, industrialists and investors are expected to participate. The PMs of Mauritius and Nepal, apart from the ambassadors of some foreign countries would also be invited for the summit.

During Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav regimes, investment proposals worth over Rs 50,000 crore were received. However, most proposals proved to be mere photo-ops and never materialised due to the sloppy follow ups, policy flip flops and perception of bad law and order.