A visitor flying into Ahmedabad for the first time often asks a simple question. Why do so many global and Indian companies choose Gujarat to set up plants, labs, ports, and finance offices. The answer starts with a two decade long habit.
The state repeatedly shows investors that it will make it easy to build, ship, hire, and grow. That habit has a name many of us now know well. Vibrant Gujarat.
In the heart of India lies a region that has redefined what it means to be open for business. Gujarat, once known primarily for its ports and spices, has become a symbol of enterprise, innovation, and global ambition.
At the center of this sweeping change stands the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, an event that is far more than just a government initiative. It’s an economic revolution, a networking epicenter, and, for many, the gold standard of policy-driven growth in India.
What makes investors come back
Walk into Mahatma Mandir on opening day of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit and you can feel two things at once: the bustle of a trade fair and the focus of a boardroom. Delegations stream past scale models of ports and smart cities; startup founders swap cards with bankers; and on stage, India’s most influential business leaders lay out billion-dollar bets. This isn’t just a conference as it’s Gujarat’s “operating system” for investment, stitched together over two decades to turn intent into industry.
Launched in 2003 by then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Vibrant Gujarat began as a post-earthquake confidence project and evolved into one of India’s most consequential investor platforms. The early years produced an unusually high tempo of MoUs and sectoral tie-ups; by 2009 and 2011, announcements ran into hundreds of billions of dollars, signaling Gujarat’s arrival as a manufacturing-and-infrastructure hub.
Gujarat has built a straightforward rule book for people who want to invest. The Gujarat Single Window Clearance Act creates one doorway to get key approvals. The MSME Act lets small and medium firms start work after a simple declaration for the first three years. The Industrial Policy 2020 makes incentives predictable by linking them to fixed capital rather than complicated tax refunds. That matters to a chief financial officer who wants certainty before putting money to work. The same policy highlights last mile infrastructure inside industrial estates and assigns relationship managers to help investors navigate the system.
You can also see the finance side of this story at GIFT City. The international financial center aims to bring global banking, insurance, funds, and fintech into one zone. State leadership speaks of making it a top financial hub in the coming years, supported by metro links and a new riverfront district. This is one reason many investors use Gujarat as their first stop for India scale plays in finance and technology.
The numbers behind the story
The official investment showcase for the state reports that Gujarat received foreign direct investment of about three point four seven lakh crore rupees from late 2019 to March 2025. The state also led the country in implemented industrial entrepreneur memoranda in 2023. That is the dry way to say firms are not just signing announcements. They are actually building.
The pharmaceutical sector provides a clean example. Of the memoranda signed at the 2024 summit, nearly half had already been commissioned by mid 2025, with more than twenty thousand jobs created and over eleven thousand crore rupees invested. International firms from Spain, the United States, and Japan were part of that mix, along with Indian companies.
Voices that shaped and tested the model
Mukesh Ambani
places the story in personal terms.At the 2024 summit, he told a packed hall: “Gujarat is my janmabhoomi (land of birth) and it should be my karmabhoomi (land of work). Reliance will always remain a Gujarati company.”
He spoke about a green energy park in Jamnagar and support for an Olympic push in Ahmedabad. These remarks show how legacy energy and new energy can grow side by side in the same state.
Gautam Adani
has stood on the summit stage since the early years.Speaking at the 2024 edition, he said: “It is a privilege to address the tenth Vibrant Gujarat Summit. I have been part of every single one of them.”
He also announced a plan to invest about two lakh crore rupees over five years in green energy and related areas, with the potential to create one lakh jobs. You can read this as a vote of confidence from a major port to power group that understands the state’s logistics and energy base better than most.
Ratan Tata
offered the most quoted line about Gujarat at the 2007 summit. Ratan Tata gave perhaps the most quoted line about Gujarat back in 2007: “If you are not in Gujarat, you are stupid.”
Later speeches repeated the sentiment and thanked the administration for speed when the Sanand plant came up. The Nano story did not end as planned, but the plant and the auto cluster that grew around Sanand and MBSIR changed the map of car making in India. The message many investors took away was simple. If you can move fast, Gujarat will match your pace.
Pankaj Patel
of Zydus shows how home grown groups keep reinvesting. At the tenth summit, he announced: “Zydus will invest ₹5,000 crore in biotechnology, hospitals, and research facilities in Gujarat.”
That helps explain why Gujarat leads in pharmaceutical production and exports. From vaccines to complex generics, the cluster keeps scaling.
Sudhir Mehta
of Torrent adds the energy and utilities angle. At Vibrant Gujarat 2024, Sudhir Mehta said: “Our agreements across solar, hybrid power, and distribution reflect our confidence in Gujarat’s business environment and the jobs we can create together.”
When power producers and distributors commit at this scale, manufacturers who need reliable power follow with less hesitation.
Ravindra H. Dholakia
gives the economist lens. He has long studied the state’s growth, public finance, and data quality. Years ago he explained and reminded policymakers and journalists: “Gujarat’s growth is not just consumption-driven. It reflects high savings and investment habits that are not always captured in spending data.”
His work also reminds us that Gujarat’s growth path has had ups and downs over the decades, which makes the state’s sustained reform focus over the past twenty years noteworthy.
How policies translate into everyday business decisions
A port led strategy reduces shipping time and cost for exporters. Mundra and other ports are now tied to renewable energy and transmission build outs that support new industries like green hydrogen and ammonia. This is not a slogan. In early 2025 a large transmission project tied to green fuels in Mundra moved ahead, adding to the long list of energy logistics upgrades that lower risk for big factories.
An industrial land strategy gives companies a place to land quickly. Dholera offers large greenfield space with smart utilities and a planned airport. Mandal Becharaji has become an auto hub with Japanese anchors and a web of vendors. When a company can sign, connect to power and water, and start civil work without delay, its board becomes more comfortable with Gujarat.
A finance strategy draws new pools of capital. GIFT City offers a single place for global banks, brokers, insurance firms, and funds to operate with clear rules. The state has pushed connectivity, city amenities, and events that bring the right people to the district. When capital sits nearby and service providers cluster, manufacturers and technology firms feel a stronger support system.
An MSME strategy fills the supply chain. Exemptions in the early years and clear help desks bring small units into formal production faster. Vendors for auto, pharma, and engineering can scale with anchor firms and ship through ports with less friction. The result is more local jobs and a deeper tax base over time.
Why Vibrant Gujarat matters beyond a three day event
A summit by itself does not create growth. What makes Vibrant Gujarat useful is the discipline it forces. Agencies prepare, clear backlogs, and publish policies. Companies announce plans and return next year to show progress. Media and analysts compare past promises with current plants and jobs. Over time this rhythm builds trust. The state’s own portal points to strong FDI inflows over the recent period, and sector updates show how many agreements move into construction and commissioning within months.
The road ahead
The next phase will test how well Gujarat can scale new energy, semiconductors, electronics, and global finance while keeping its ease of doing business edge. The state is trying to open doors for women, tribal, and small entrepreneurs in agri and allied areas as well, which can spread gains beyond the big cities. If these efforts hold, more investors will choose Gujarat for their first plant or their next campus.
In a hall full of investors you often hear the same closing thought. You come to Gujarat for the pitch, but you stay for the execution. The habit of doing what was promised is the real economic impact of Vibrant Gujarat. It gives builders the confidence to put money to work today rather than a year from now. And that is how a summit turns into jobs, exports, and steady growth.
This is the kind of Gujarati story that deserves to be celebrated. Stay connected with Gujpreneur for more inspiration and updates from the world of entrepreneurs!
