2011 Vibrant Leaders

Gandhinagar: Top Industry Leaders on Wednesday signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth Rs 14,90,929 crore on the first day of the Vibrant Gujarat business summit, which began here at the Mahatma Mandir here in Gandhinagar. This is nearly Rs 1.5 lakh crore more than the total MoUs that were signed up at the last summit, which took place exactly two years ago at the Science City in Ahmedabad. 

Talking to newspersons at the end of the first day of session, which included the inaugural ceremony followed by seminars on several different sectors like oil and gas, power, special investment regions, special economic zones, industrial parks, logistic parks and solar impulse, Maheshwar Sahu, principal secretary (industries) claimed this time all MoUs were “thoroughly screened” before being signed, so that there are no dropouts at the later stage. 

“During the screening of MoUs, we rejected 12 per cent of all MoUs which we found were not viable”, Sahu said, adding, “The summit, to which nearly 30,000 participants have registered, is proving to be a meeting of minds and a knowledge sharing platform.” The two-day Vibrant Gujarat Summit ends on Thursday afternoon with more MoUs and seminars on urban development, ports and transport, IT, and so on. 

The power sector had the biggest share in the amount of MoUs. In all, 48 MoUs for the sector were signed up, for Rs 3.05 lakh crore. This was followed by Rs 1.72 lakh crore worth of 16 MoUs in the financial sector. These MoUs are with major banks, including nationalized ones. State Bank of India alone has proposed to fund Rs 50,000 crore projects in Gujarat. “More MoUs in the sector will be signed with Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) on Thursday”, a senior official said. 

This was followed by 41 MoUs with mineral-based industries like cement, silica and bauxite for Rs 1.35 lakh crore. Gujarat’s special economic zones (SEZs) invited 13 MoUs for Rs 1.23 lakh crore. The Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region – a special investment region between Dahej and Bharuch as part of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) – invited 153 MoUs worth Rs 73,546 crore. In the oil and gas sector, 16 MoUs for Rs 40,679 crore were signed up.