India Inc's mega plans for Gujarat

Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party government, top industry captains pledged mega investments at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit.

Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Aditya Birla and Tata group chairman N Chandrasekaran on Friday announced investments worth crores for the state.

India's richest person Mukesh Ambani committed to invest Rs 3 lakh crore in various projects in the next 10 years in Gujarat, that may range from energy and petrochemical to new technology and digital business.

Ambani's Reliance Industries operates the world's largest oil refining complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat as well as petrochemical units at multiple locations in the state.

"Gujarat is Reliance's Janmabhoomi (birthplace) as well as its Karmabhoomi (workplace). Gujarat has always been - and will always remain - our first choice," he said at the 9th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in Gandhinagar.

Reliance has also invested billions of dollars in the roll out of telecom venture, Jio.

"We have so far invested nearly Rs 3 lakh crores in the state of Gujarat. And created and catalysed over one million livelihood opportunities in Gujarat. In comparison to the past decades, Reliance will double this investment and employment numbers over the next ten years," he said.

Without giving timelines, he said Jio and Reliance Retail, which has over 9,000 stores across the country, will launch "a unique new commerce platform to empower and enrich our 12 lakh small retailers and shopkeepers in Gujarat – which are part of over 3 crore community in India."

Ambani had previously spoken of leveraging the Jio network for launching some sort of e-commerce venture.

"As the world moves towards electrical vehicles, Reliance will use hydrocarbons less for fuel and more for producing high-value new materials with a wide range of uses in society," he said adding the oil to chemicals strategy will greatly boost exports and create employment.

Photograph: PTI Photo

Also, Reliance Foundation will invest Rs 150 crore to make Pandit Deendayal University in Gujarat even stronger and an institution of international repute, he said.

Tata group chairman N Chandrasekaran said the conglomerate plans to invest in lithium ion battery manufacturing in Gujarat.

Speaking at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, he said group firm Tata Chemicals is also looking to enhance its soda ash capacity to one million tonnes annually.

"Many of our group companies like Tata Chemicals and Tata Motors have very significant presence here. We look forward to continuing our investment in the state," Chandrasekaran said.

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He further said, "We are in discussions with the state government for significantly increasing our capacity of Tata Chemicals to reach one million (10 lakh) tonnes of soda ash."

At present, the company's plant at Mithapur in Gujarat has a soda ash capacity of 8.2 lakh tonnes per annum.

Stating that Gujarat is a very important state for the Tatas, he said the group's revenue from the state last year was about Rs 18,000 crore.

"The Tata group has significant presence in Gujarat. It is the third largest state for the group and we have about 25,000 employees," he added.

Chandrasekaran also said the over $100 billion salt-to-software conglomerate will also be "investing in renewable energy apart from growing our presence in the technology sector".

He, however, did not specify the quantum of investments that the group would made in the state on the new proposed projects.

He also said Tata group's hotels business is significantly integrated with Gujarat in tourism opportunity that it presents.

"We see Gujarat as a big partner for the Tata group and it's a place where professionalism is shown at its best," he said.

Aditya Birla Group plans to invest Rs 15,000 crore in Gujarat over the next three years on capacity expansion and setting up of new units, its chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said.

The group will be making these investments in various business segments ranging from textiles and chemicals to mining and minerals.

Speaking at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, Birla said, up until now the group's investments in Gujarat "are of over Rs 30,000 crore and counting".

"We have plans to invest about Rs 15,000 crore more. This is towards expansion of our capacities, setting up of new plants," he said. Elaborating the investment plans, he said, "Amongst our major expansion is with Grasim viscose staple fibre plant at Vilayat and Indian Rayon viscose filament yarn plant at Veraval. These will entail investments of Rs 7,500 crore."

The group currently has 15 manufacturing plants providing employment to around 26,000 people.

He said the investments on expanding group firm Grasim's chemical business will be around Rs 1,000 crore.

"About Rs 1,000 crore allocated for the mining and mineral sector and solar power," Birla added.

Moreover, the group is also increasing investment in green technologies at all of its plants as part of environmental friendly measures as part of the new investments planned, he added.

"All of these investments together run up to Rs 15,000 crore three year period," Birla said.

Gautam Adani anounced over Rs 55,000 crore investment in the next five years in a clutch of projects in Gujarat including the world's largest solar park, a copper plant, a cement unit, and a lithium battery manufacturing complex.

Speaking at the 9th Vibrant Gujarat Summit here, Adani said his group's investments in Gujarat in the past five years exceed Rs 50,000 crore and "we are further accelerating our investments."

"Over the next 5 years, our investments will include the world's largest solar hybrid park in Khavda. The anticipated investment in this park is Rs 30,000 crore.

"We also plan to establish a 1 GW Data Center Park in Mundra, a one million ton copper smelting and refining project, a cement and clinker manufacturing unit in Lakhpat, an integrated Lithium battery manufacturing complex and expand our Photovoltaic manufacturing capabilities. Overall, we anticipate a total of Rs 55,000 crore of investment in all these projects," he said.

This will lead to the creation of over 50,000 new direct and indirect jobs in the state.

Adani praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision saying he has "fundamentally restored confidence across the world that India will be the key engine for global economic growth."