Vibrant Gujarat Summit: India will soon become global economic powerhouse, says PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared on Wednesday that India will soon become a “global economic powerhouse” as he marked the 20th anniversary of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, an investor meeting that he helped organise in 2003 while serving as the governor of Gujarat. On the second of his two days in the state, PM Modi criticised the opposition parties for “stalling” the women’s reservation bill for three decades and claimed that his government at the Centre had helped thousands of women become homeowners. Additionally, he disparaged the previous UPA administration, which was run by the Congress, for its “indifferent” approach to Gujarat’s growth. Speaking at a celebration in Ahmedabad to commemorate the Vibrant Gujarat Summit’s 20 years of success, Modi claimed that the state government had planted little seeds 20 years prior. “We organised Vibrant Gujarat to make the state a growth engine of India. The country has seen this imagination becoming a reality. In 2014, when I was given the opportunity to serve the country, my aim was to make India a global growth engine,” Modi said, addressing the gathering of industrialists and businessmen. “We are standing at such a point that India will soon emerge as a global economic powerhouse,” he said, adding that global agencies and experts are today talking on similar lines. “In a few years, India will be among the world’s top three economies. This is Modi’s guarantee," the PM said. He urged the business community to consider the areas where India might expand its opportunities or fortify its position. The Vibrant Gujarat event, which had humble beginnings, became into an institution, and many states eventually started to conduct comparable investor summits, according to Modi. In reference to the Vibrant Gujarat Summit’s journey, Modi said that Swami Vivekananda once said that every work goes through three stages: first it is mocked, then it encounters opposition, and lastly it is accepted. “But when it was organised (in the early years), the then central government showed indifference to Gujarat’s development. I have always talked about India’s development through Gujarat’s development, but those in power at the Centre had also associated Gujarat’s development with politics,” Modi said, in a veiled swipe at the UPA government. Then ministers in the central government would tell him that they would attend the event, but later refuse, “perhaps after pressure from the top”, he said, claiming further that instead of extending support, “they were busy creating hurdles” and foreign investors were warned not to go to Gujarat. Despite this, foreign investors visited Gujarat because they could experience “good governance, fair governance, policy-driven governance, an equal system of growth and a transparent government in daily life,” he said. When the first Vibrant Gujarat Summit was held in 2003, he was a first-time chief minister and had faced crises such as the 2001 earthquake, collapse of cooperative banks and the 2002 Godhra tragedy and state-wide violence in its aftermath, Modi said. “Those with an agenda” predicted that youth, industry and business will leave Gujarat, the prime minister said, claiming that there was a “conspiracy to defame” the state globally. Nevertheless, he claimed that the summit served as a platform for Gujarat’s decision-making, India’s industrial prowess, and its rich cultural heritage. More than 40,000 delegates from over 135 nations attend the summit today, up from a small number of attendees in 2003, according to PM Modi. In today’s deeply connected world, financial cooperation among institutions is rising fast, and Gujarat already has GIFT City (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City), the prime minister said, adding “we should increase our effort to make GIFT City a globally competitive financial market place.” “This is the time for India to make a roadmap to become a developed, self-reliant country,” he added. After launching projects totaling more than Rs 5,000 crore in Bodeli town, a tribally predominate district, Modi stated he does not own a home, but “lakhs of daughters” of the nation have become home owners as a result of his government’s initiatives. “Today I am satisfied because my government has built four crore houses for people across the country. Unlike the past governments, a house for the poor is not just a number for us,” he said. “Lakhs of houses were built and registered in the names of women. Though I don’t have a house in my name yet, my government made lakhs of daughters house-owners,” the prime minister added. The Gujarat education department’s command and control centre in Gandhinagar, known as Vidya Samiksha Kendra, reportedly impressed World Bank president Ajay Banga to the point where he urged him to open similar facilities across the nation and stated that the World Bank is prepared to be a part of the project. His government finally unveiled the new National Education Policy (NEP), which had been in limbo for three decades. The opposition “indulged in the politics of reservation instead of working to improve the education scenario in the state,” Modi added. The BJP government in Gujarat has built five medical colleges, two universities and 25,000 new classrooms in the entire tribal belt starting from Ambaji to Umargam, he said. Speaking at a BJP-organized event in Vadodara to accept praise for the bill’s passage reserving 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures for women, Modi claimed that opposition parties had “stalled” the bill for three decades and were now attempting to divide women along caste and religious lines. He said that in the past, opposition leaders engaged in “match-fixing” to prevent the law from being approved by Parliament. “Do not be under the impression that they (opposition) have changed their attitude. They have now supported the bill because they were afraid of you. They did everything possible to stall the women’s reservation bill for three decades. Just check their past track record. They made all types of excuses, tore apart the bill and did all sorts of drama in the past,” he said. (With agency inputs)