India has had an ongoing programme of targeted diaspora outreach for more than a decade now, in the shape and form of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, which takes place every year in January, coinciding with the date of arrival on India’s shores of one of the most famous members of India’s diaspora, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation. Regional PBDs also are organised and held, in different parts of the world that have a large population of people of Indian origin, with the last one taking place toward the fag end of 2015 at Los Angeles, USA. But of late, since the formation of the NDA government lewd by PM Narendra Modi of the BJP last year, states are being encouraged to organise and host world investor summits where not merely our diaspora, but governments and companies from across the globe participate. This new trend that began last year has now caught on and is a regular feature all the year round. NRI Achievers brings you vignettes on what the next three months have in store …
JANUARY 2016
In January, the state of West Bengal is hosting its “Global Business Summit 2016” on the 7th, 8th & 9th at the Trade Fair Grounds at Tangra in Kolkata city. The Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool government aims to cast a spotlight upon the state’s capability and readiness to take on bigger and greater business challenges. With the aim to fulfil aspirations, the vision for the upcoming business summit is to promote an image of Bengal as a newly business-ready state, ostensibly with the purpose of broadening available avenues of business possibilities by implementing technology, policies, practice and putting in place strategic investments. The three-day long summit will seek to open up new business propositions, seek partners from the global business community, investors and intellectual capital from outside the state and the country. The meet will aim to encourage investments in a wide range of areas to trigger a journey of growth and progress in the near future. While there will be platforms for sharing experiences of doing business in Bengal by major industry players, there will also be presentations from overseas and national investors.
The three-day event will include plenary sessions chaired by national and international entrepreneurs of stature, who will share their thoughts and experiences. There will also be sectoral breakaway sessions with participation from leading industrialists of each sector. B2B and G2B interactions will also be organised, while opportunities for Expositions and Exhibition will be open. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be present to lens an ear to entrepreneurs and evaluate sectoral recommendations, after which she will share her thoughts with participants. The west Bengal Summit would be the best platform to understand the inherent potential of the state in various sectors, and will create opportunities for diaspora and investors to interact with policy makers, industry leaders, and government officials. Evenings will showcase Bengal’s great heritage in arts and culture. The West Bengal Global Business Summit 2016 is being organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).
The southern state of Andhra Pradesh too has a global partnership summit on its agenda during the month of January, with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in partnership with the DPIP (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry) and the State Government of Andhra Pradesh organising its 22nd edition of the “Andhra Pradesh Global Partnership Summit” from 10-12 January 2016 at the APIIC Ground in Harbour Park, Visakhapatnam. Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, is the Chair of the Summit and the State Government of Andhra Pradesh is the ‘Partner State’ for this edition of the prestigious initiative. The Partnership Summit, which first took place in 1995 to mark the centenary of CII, has since become one of the most important international business events in the country. It aims to further partnerships, build ideologies based on shared dreams that bind societies together in this knowledge driven world. The Summit has established itself as an ideal ground for business networking and sharing of ideas to debate and deliberate, where corporate seek a collective view beyond bottom lines.
The Partnership Summit regularly features Heads of States and Governments, Ministers, policy makers, CEOs, academicians and thought leaders from all over the world. The Summit traditionally sees over 1200 delegates with almost 40% attending from several countries including USA, UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mexico, Canada, France, Australia, South Africa, Italy, Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and UAE amongst others.
FEBRUARY 2016
The Karnataka state government, which had initially planned for a global investors meet for the end of November 2015, had to ultimately postpone this event to early 2016 due to unprecedented drought conditions that prevailed in the state. State Industries Minister RV Deshpande says, “Our global investors meet – we were to originally have it on 23rd, 24th, 25th of November. We had made all arrangements and preparations and we even had a road show in Delhi… but what happened unfortunately, we were hit by a drought of proportions not seen for the last 44 years… very severe. 136 taluks have declared drought. So we felt with farmers in distress, agricultural labour in distress, we thought it fit to postpone the meet to 3rd, 4th, 5th February 2016.”
The Invest Karnataka 2016 event is now taking place between 03-05 February 2016 at the Palace Grounds of Bengaluru. Giving details about the investors’ meet, CM Siddaramaiah said that consultative meetings would be held with industry associations, corporate head honchos, global CEOs, embassies and consulates of various countries in India during the meet. As part of the effort, road shows are also to be taken out to create awareness about investment in Mysuru, Hubballi, Kalaburagi, etc., to Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi and select locations abroad as well. Focus countries for attracting investment include Japan, Taiwan, Middle East, US, Germany, France, Sweden, and Singapore. The Chief Minister said 30,000 acres of land has been acquired and another 20,000 acres has been identified for acquisition for industrial projects in the State. “Compared to the 2010 and 2012 meets, we expect more investment during this meet,” the Chief Minister said. Karnataka had attracted INR 3.92 lakh crore investments in 2010 and INR 6.77 lakh crore in 2012. Major focal sectors in Invest Karnataka 2016 are (1) Manufacturing, including automobile, aerospace, machine tools, defense, heavy engineering; (2) Agro and food processing; (3) Textiles; (4) Energy, including renewable energy; (5) Tourism; (6) IT / BT; (7) Drugs and Pharmaceuticals; (8) Electronics, semiconductors manufacturing; (9) Infrastructure; (10) Private Industrial Parks and (11) Smart Townships.
Karnataka’s pre-eminent position on the industrial and business map of India is based on several factors. The state is rich in natural resources and known for its salubrious climate. It has a strong resource base of highly educated people, backed by an extensive educational infrastructure comprising world-renowned schools, colleges, institutes of higher learning and R&D centres. Labour force is highly skilled, disciplined and hard working. Above all, it has a development-oriented, investor-friendly regime that believes in and actively encourages public-private partnerships.
MARCH 2016
With every state focusing on attracting & connecting NRIs with their respective states for investments, participation and collaborativ ventures, Haryana is not to be left behind either. In an Investment Road show held recently in New Delhi, Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar said that they were expecting more than 1,000 participants and investments worth INR 100,000 crore is pour in due to the state’s investor/diaspora outreach efforts. It is also anticipated that this summit will result in the creation of about 400,000 jobs in the state. The “Happening Haryana Global Investors Summit” is to be held in Gurgaon, from March 7 to 8, 2016; and on the 9th of March, a “Haryana Prawasi Diwas” is to be celebrated.
The Chief Minister said that the government was undertaking several measures to promote industry and investments in the state, which would create employment opportunities. Present on the occasion, Haryana Industries Minister Capt. Abhimanyu said that steps were being taken to organise bootcamps and road shows for start-up awareness with the joint efforts of the state government and Startup Accelerator Chamber of Commerce. These bootcamps would be organised in colleges and universities across the state from January. Giving out details, Principal Secretary Devender Singh said 300 to 400 MOUs are expected to be signed during this event. The Pravasi Haryana Divas has been planned to apprise NRIs and PIOs of the huge investment potential Haryana has, and the vast scope the state offers for investment in varied fields like food processing, pharma, Information Technology, auto, defense production, aerospace, bio-technology, healthcare, medical education, skill development, Digital India, automotive sector etc. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is the National partner for the event, which is being held for the first time by Haryana Government.