Vibrant Gujarat 2011: World looks at India & India looks at Gujarat says Kochhar

AHMEDABAD: Industry captains endorsed Gujarat as the country's premier investment destination by committing investments of 2,50,000 crore within one hour on the first day of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit on Wednesday.

And everybody, from Ambani brothers to Ratan Tata and Kumar Mangalam Birla, showered praise on Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, calling him the change agent of the decade.

"The world looks at India and India looks at Gujarat," said ICICI Bank chairman Chanda Kochhar, the only lady on the three-layered dais full of corporate leaders who together represent 19%, or 13.09 lakh crore, of the country's market capitalisation.

Mahindra & Mahindra vice-chairman Anand Mahindra said that that the state administration is focused on outcome and not show. "You cannot afford not to be here," he said, and told the chief minister: "Tell your critics you are doing a great job."

Thousands of foreign and Indian business delegates arrived in Gandhinagar on Wednesday morning to attend the biennial summit held at Mahatma Mandir, the newly-built venue, in the state capital.

Talking at the event, Modi termed the summit as the biggest business event in the country, having representatives from 96 countries.

Gujarat principal secretary Maheshwar Sahu said 14,90,000-crore ($325 billion) worth of investment proposals came from various industries on the first day of the summit.

State government officials expect the total value of proposed projects at the end of the summit to easily cross 20 lakh crore. Vibrant Gujarat has been attracting sizeable investment proposals from domestic and foreign companies since its start in 2003. The last summit drew project plans worth Rs 12.44 lakh crore.

Several critics called these figures unrealistic and inflated, but state official said that 40% of the memoranda of understanding signed during the 2009 summit are being implemented and 60% projects inked in 2007 are off the ground.

Leading the investors' pack on the first day was the Adani Group, which committed 80,000 crore investments in ports and power. Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group committed 50,000 crore for power and Essar Group promised 30,000-crore investments into energy, ports and water infrastructure.

Larsen & Toubro committed 15,000 crore on infrastructure, while tractor-to-software group Mahindra & Mahindra signed six MoUs to invest 3,000 crore. Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), the company behind the troubled Lavasa township project in Maharashtra, said it will invest 1,200 crore to set up a renewable energy project within five years in the state.

General Motors, which manufactures cars near Vadodara, will pump in 450 crore for expansion of the plant.

HCC and infrastructure company Universal Success Enterprise were among the largest investor committing around 40,000 crore each during the last summit. The two companies were panned by state Congress leaders for inaction over two years.