Vibrant Gujarat summit fails to create job opportunities

Lily

B.R
Staff member
Gandhinagar: The biennial Vibrant Gujarat — a summit of international investors — has brought loads of money to India's western state without creating enough job opportunities.

According to Gujarat government's estimates, the last four editions of the Vibrant Gujarat summit, which started in 2003, have managed to attract investments worth 4,800 billion rupees (Dh389 billion). However, it has managed to generate barely 270,000 jobs instead of 4.8 million jobs as was estimated.

Although exact figures of the investments generated this year are not yet available, it is estimated that memorandums of understanding (MoU) worth $400 billion could have been signed during the two-day event that concluded in the Gujarat capital yesterday.

MoUs worth $333 billion were signed on the first day of the summit on Wednesday itself.

A cautious government, however, is tight-lipped over the jobs these massive investments could create in the state due to its past experiences. While all MoUs do not fruity, some of them are taking longer than expected to come up and get functional.

"...Two hundred seventy-thousand jobs in eight years are peanuts. No one would have remained unemployed in Gujarat if the promises made all these years had been fulfilled," said Amrit Solanki, an unemployed management graduate.

Varied explanations are being given for the failure to generate adequate jobs. They vary from the impact of economic downturn to the fact that the number of people employed in the private sector who are not enrolled through the employment exchange could not be correct.

Past editions

The first edition of Vibrant Gujarat in 2003 saw signing of 76 MoUs worth 660 billion rupees. It was meant to generate 300,000 jobs.

The second edition of Vibrant Gujarat, held in 2005, saw signing of 226 MoUs worth 890 billion rupees. It had envisaged creation of 603,000 jobs.

The number of MoUs singed in 2007 in the third edition of Vibrant Gujarat increased to 363 with total investments worth 2,050 billion rupees while the number of MoUs singed in 2009 jumped to 3446.

 
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