A host of business and political leaders, including US Secretary of State John Kerry, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank head Jim Yong Kim, as well as billionaire Indians, Mukesh Ambani and the Adani brothers, gathered at the summit.
The summit began on Modi’s initiative, seven year ago, when he was Chief Minister of the state, and was a means for him to pull in big investments, employment and business. He seems set to scale this up to a national level, and promised that India would have “predictable and transparent” policies, a stable tax regime, and would be the “easiest” place to do business.
Pitching for inclusive growth, he said, “Development process should benefit the common man as well as the business sector. We have made commitments to our people. We have made commitments to ourselves. We have made commitments for India’s great future.”
“We are planning to take a quantum leap,” he said, in his 40-minute speech. “India is changing fast, growing fast, moving faster than expected, learning even faster.”
Modi also highlighted the oft-repeated phrase that India is a young country, something that Home Minister Rajnath Singh had also brought up on Swami Vivekananda’s birthday, celebrated as National Youth Day. Emphasizing India’s advantages, Modi said, “India has three things to its credit — democracy, demography and demand. This is what you are looking for. And I am sure you will not find all of them together at any other destination.”
Modi’s call seems to have worked, with 21,000 Memorandums of Understanding signed, expected to bring in INR 27,461 crore (USD $4.5 billion) and 2.04 lakh jobs. The highest number of MoUs were signed in urban development (1,052), followed by rural development (340), animal husbandry and fisheries (298) and agro and food processing (228).
