Vibrant Gujarat Summit Day 1: Reliance, Adani, Tata Group and others make big investment proposals

On a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi guaranteed that India would be among the world's top three economies, India Inc followed through with that assurance by committing to big investments in Gujarat.

The country's three big business houses — Reliance Industries, the Adani Group and the Tata Group — made big-ticket investment proposals for various projects in Gujarat. Reliance, which has a significant footprint in Gujarat, will build its much-awaited Dhirubhai Ambani Green Complex in Jamnagar, said Chairman Mukesh Ambani, who announced that the complex would be ready by the second half of this year.

"Reliance was, is and will always remain a Gujarati company," Ambani said, adding, "We have invested over ₹12 lakh crore to create world-class assets all over India; over a third of these assets are invested in Gujarat alone."

The Adani Group is expected to invest ₹2 lakh crore in the state over five years according to chairman, Gautam Adani. "We have already surpassed ₹50,000 crore of the ₹55,000 crore that we last committed," he said, "We will also create over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in Gujarat."

The Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran said the Group was in the process of closing negotiations over setting up a semiconductor fab plant in Dholera. "We are planning to begin production of semiconductors from Gujarat this year.  We see Gujarat as an important destination for business growth and future advanced technology industries," he said. Construction for the group's 20 GW battery project is expected to begin in the next few months too, Chandrasekaran added.

Later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India would become one of the world's top three economies soon, irrespective of what rating agencies believed. "Every rating agency believes India will be in the top three economies over the next few years. The world can analyse whatever it wants, but I guarantee that India will be among the world's top three economies."

Several names from India Inc, including the likes of Tata Power, Arcelor Mittal, Welspun World, Zydus Life and Arvind Ltd among many others, also made investment proposals. Welspun, for one, has committed close to ₹40,000 crore towards setting up a green ammonia plant in Kutch.

"We will be producing green ammonia on one of our land banks in Kutch even as we bid for port land. We have signed an MoU with Gujarat which is taking big steps to promote green energy; we hope to produce green ammonia over the next three to five years," said BK Goenka, Chairman at Welspun World.

Arcelor Mittal has announced that it will build the world's largest steel manufacturing site in Hazira by 2029. "We will continue to expand our business in steel and mining," said chairman Lakshmi Mittal, while speaking to the media, "We are also entering into renewable energy — so, investing in steel and renewables will be part of our plan."

Mittal added that there are big plans for future investments. "We have signed big MOUs but they aren't as important as when we start executing these projects," he said.

Arvind Limited has announced the signing of MoUs in textiles and real estate; the company's executive director Kulin Lalbhai told CNBC-TV18 that it would invest these sums in the group's combined businesses in Ahmedabad. "Our investments are expected to be executed over the next four years," he said, "We will scale up the technical textiles segment in Arvind Ltd, and focus on real estate development in Ahmedabad."

Lalbhai said that while manufacturing was India's strength, the country needed to do more to capitalise on the world's China + 1 approach. "We need to step up as the world moves away from China," he said, "We have 5% of the world's textile and apparel trade — doubling this will mean $50 billion in exports. India also needs to scale up garmenting, and FTAs are expected to play a role here. The main challenge for us is to get people out of agriculture and into manufacturing."

Earlier, Suzuki Motor Corp committed ₹30,000 crore towards expanding its existing plant in Sanand and opening a new plant in Gujarat. "We have grown 1.7 times in production and 2.6 times in vehicle exports from India, this year," said Toshihiro Suzuki, President of Suzuki Motor Corporation, "Suzuki will invest ₹30,000 crore in Gujarat to scale production up to 1 million units from the state."

He added: "We are also investing in our second plant with an annual capacity of one million; our total annual production in Gujarat will be two million units per year."

Meanwhile, Ed Knight, Global Board Chair of the US-India Business Council

(USIBC) and Executive Vice Chairman of Nasdaq, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the summit to discuss policy reforms to boost financial inclusion at an industry roundtable focused on growing India’s FinTech ecosystem.

While Day 1 of Vibrant Gujarat saw traditional sectors like manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and automobiles in focus, the second day is expected to see new-age ones like electric mobility and renewables make their investment commitments to the state.