Ahead of the international Vibrant Gujarat 2017 Summit in January, a high profile business delegation came to the UK to hold talks across major cities.
Led by Mrs Mamta Verma, IAS, Industries Commissioner for the Government of Gujarat, the delegation included top industry leaders and Sunil Parekh, Adviser to the government and Strategic Advisor for Zydus Cadila, healthcare provider.
Mrs Verma said that post the 2003 Kutch earthquake, the need to reposition and re-establish Gujarat was vital to build investor confidence. Mr Parekh said that the potential total value of investment to Gujarat was around £30 billion.
Both of them sat down for an exclusive interview with the Asian Voice at the delegate hotel in London. While no MOUs were agreed, this visit was a curtain raiser for a summit on start ups this October in Gujarat and the eighth Vibrant Gujarat summit. Around 23 or 25 investment -friendly countries have been identified to work with, they said, so 12 Gujarat delegations were sent out. Mrs Verma’s had just been to Israel.
Core areas for talks included Financial Services, Defence and Aerospace, Engineering, Automobiles and Auto components, with an emphasis on Innovation, Start Ups, Textiles and Pharmaceuticals.
On Defence, Sunil mentioned that the UK has many products to offer India, and that this helps the Indian workforce too. This is due to the rule that of any goods supplied in the Defence sector, 30% have to be procured locally. “Many Gujarat SMEs make a lot of components. We are now one of the largest Defence markets in the world and last year our order for 63 Boeing planes was the biggest ever.”
Among the delegates were several global agency representatives; healthcare provider Zydus Cadila, and Harish Mehta of Suzlon, the world’s fifth largest Wind Turbine supplier as recorded in 2013. Amit Agarwal of Jindal Worldwide represented the textile industry, while Vikas Nath represented the Adani group, one of the biggest Indian infrastructure and logistics companies. Sanjay Kumar Randhar is the MD of Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd, India’s oldest and biggest finance company, and Dhanraj Nathwani is Senior VP of Reliance Industries, one of India’s biggest private sector companies. Mrs Verma also mentioned GIFT (Gujarat International Finance Tech City Ltd), India’s first smart city just near Gandhinagar. Ajay Kumar Pandey is the MD and group CEO. Gujarat is aiming to make it hub to rival Singapore, Dubai and London.
Mrs Verma said that though the delegation was government-led, “The drivers are from the public sector.”
Mrs Verma and Mr Parekh spoke about “fruitful” talks they had had with Tech UK, Innovate UK and Lloyd’s Reinsurance. The latter said that, at 20, Gujarat has the largest number of incubators in India.
Mr Parekh said, “We found in Innovate UK two programmes; 1) where an Indian company in conjunction with an Indian university can apply for a research project with a British company and a British university. Both governments have agreed at a national level to fund 50% /50% to a total of about five million pounds. We have four other such relationships like with the Karo Linska University in Sweden.”
He also mentioned the October summit for Start Ups happening in Gujarat. From ongoing talks with Innovate UK, “we have the Grand Challenge Award where we want British entries to compete for challenges in agriculture and water. The prize money is in the region of £100,000 pounds.”
Mrs Verma was also pleased at the Lloyd’s Reinsurance meeting, in which GIFT was a focus. “We are working with the Federal Government to get regulations approved,” she said. “As part of their own programme with India, (not our visit,) Lloyd’s Reinsurance has committed £200 million pounds to invest in reinsurance in India.”
She said that though she was not initially sure how BREXIT had affected the UK, she found it had given India an advantage. “Each company here is thinking about how to mitigate the BREXIT fallout.”
On the often raised complaints about Indian regulations, she said that last year, a survey by the World Bank ranked Gujarat as the best Indian state for doing business.
“A lot of our processes are now online, so clearances are now much faster.”
Finally, Mrs Verma and Mr Parekh attributed much of the success of Gujarat to a “pragmatic” ecosystem. Mr Parekh said,
“We have a political class that comes from a society that is related to business so they understand business requirements. When a new IAS officer arrives, he is moulded and shaped by an environment that is entrepreneur-friendly.”
