India’s top industrialists have lined up to heap praise on Narendra Modi and promise billions of dollars in investment in the prime minister’s home state at an event just months before a potentially pivotal national election.
Economic issues will be high in voters’ minds in the lower house election expected in April and May, with the Indian National Congress and other opposition parties attacking the record on job creation of Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata party.
Modi on Wednesday hosted Indian and foreign executives and leaders from the United Arab Emirates, Czech Republic and Mozambique at the biennial Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, where companies queued up to announce commitments to the western state where he launched his political career.