Is Vibrant Gujarat losing its sheen and surviving on the past glory of Modi days in Gujarat?

Vibrant Gujarat, the biennial business meet in Gujarat has been labelled as the ‘Davos of the East’ by the world’s major investors. Under the leadership of Modi, during his Chief Ministership, Gujarat has evolved as an investors’ delight. During 2003, when most states of India were riding the IT wave and struggling to find profitability, Modi was calling investors from all over the world and briefing them about ease of doing business in India’s west coast. And he actually did it.

Cut to 2017. The 8th edition of Vibrant Gujarat is taking place under a Chief Minister who is just a little more than five months into his job. The erstwhile Chief Minister Anandbehen Patel had failed in her job to appease Dalits, create more jobs and keep BJP president Amit Shah convinced.
As Gujarat’s ‘economic expressway’ (as they prefer calling the event) seems to zoom off, you can hear echoing whispers among a few industrialists at the event, how much of the proposed promises have actually been implemented. Gujarat, which topped the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in India has now lost it to Andhra Pradesh and Telengana.

Experts believe, as Modi has become the Prime Minister, there have been instances of social unrest and political instability that came to the fore. And as the last business summit before the election is underway, investors’ minds are getting impacted.

This edition of Vibrant Gujarat has seen MoUs touch Rs 20 lakh crores. The amount is likely to cross Rs 30 lakh croremark today, according to The Times of India. Among the sectors where companies expressed their intent to invest defence and aerospace, mining and minerals, chemicals, steel, urban infrastructure, petroleum and petrochemicals, renewable energy, automotive, electronics and information technology are noteworthy.

While the state government of Gujarat said that conversion rate is clocked at 70%, the opposition party Congress claimed the actual to be pegged at not more than 10%. However top business conglomerates Reliance and Adani Group said that they have fulfilled their promises.

To believe Gujarat’s Directorate of Economics and Statistics, about 8% have been implemented out of Rs 40 trillion proposed investments. Citing the Socio-Economic Review of Gujarat for 2015-16, The Mint had reported that 57% proposals made between 2003 and last year have been commissioned or implemented.

While Gujarat ranked fifth, Maharashtra that doesn’t organize any such summit has attracted the most FDIs, almost 30% of India’s total between 2002-2016, according to Bloomberg. The same media report said, Gujarat is no longer the easiest place to do business any more.

However, Modi’s brain child Vibrant Gujarat has seen several other states including West Bengal and Rajasthan adapt the same concept and get investments.

The social unrest in India’s one of the most opulent states is rising. Only a few weeks back, Conveners of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), OBC leaders and dalits have threatened to disrupt the summit, if fixed-pay and contractual employees were not made permanent by the state government. So a state, whose Minister of Industries, Mines and Minerals and Finance department Rohit Patel boasted of ‘minimum labour unrest’ during his speech seems to be getting distracted.

Not just that. A few months ago, Gujarat has witnessed backlash against jobless economic growth that could jeopardise development and BJP’s coming back t power in 2019, reported Bloomberg.

This season of Vibrant Gujarat seemed to be relying largely on the previous editions of success. Most state ministers thanked Modi immensely for this summit, while avoiding media question of how much implementation has happened. What they offered are figures of investments and not facts about implementation.