Diamonds in the offing, but no regalia for the Lord Mayor

I had an opportunity to see and hear about some of the colossal opportunities and developments outside Mumbai, in the State of Madhya Pradesh.  The State, which straddles the centre of India, remains one of the poorest areas of the country, with high figures for incidents of malnutrition among children and low levels of income among the mainly rural population of about 60M. But the State is nonetheless rapidly becoming a magnet for investments which should help to raise its GDP.

The State Government arranged a conference for national and international investors, chaired by its Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan  and most of his Cabinet. There were over 300 delegates, including some of India’s top business leaders.  I had an opportunity to meet, and share a speaking platform with, Mr Kumarmangalam Birla, Mr Anil Ambani and Mr Shashi Ruia, who between them, according to the latest Forbes listing, represent a net worth of some $40 billion, and run three of India’s largest groups. Importantly for Madya Pradesh they made some major commitments, including plans for India’s largest coal mine, new cement factories, a new university and two of the largest power plants in India. Their commitments will in turn lead to a spurt in infrastructure development in the State.

Not all the investments are from India, and I was joined at the Summit by a strong team from Rio Tinto, lead from London by Robert Court, Head of International Affairs, and Bruce Cox, Head of Diamond Mining. Rio Tinto enthused the delegates when they announced plans for a  £350M diamond mine about four hours drive from Kjajuraho at Bunder.   Both Rio and I had productive meetings with the Chief Minister, who also re-affirmed his appreciation for our Department for International Development’s continuing support for a range of health, education and other projects.

Returning to Mumbai via a charter flight provided by Jet Airlines, I was back at the airport again soon afterwards to greet the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Nick Anstee, and a small delegation of high-powered City delegates, including the Chairman of the Stock Exchange, a Vice-Chair of Standard Chartered Capital Markets, and the CEO of the UK India Business Council. Betraying some English influences in his education Maharasthra’s Head of Protocol, Sumit Mullick, recalled the story of Dick Whittington when he greeted The Lord Mayor: Mullick’s interest in literature goes way beyond nursery rhymes – his novel “Seducing Pain” is a fascinating glimpse into the world of Indian bureaucracy in a fictional State.

The days of gold chains and large retinues have long gone for overseas visits from Mansion House, and the Lord Mayor and his team had a rapid fire succession of business-like meetings with the Reserve Bank of India, the Securities and Exchange Board, and a number of companies who had listed on the LSE, or could well do so shortly.  There were no quick runs on the board for the cricket-loving Mayor in terms of liberalisation, which no-one expected, but his visit underlined to the top officials in Mumbai our continuing interest in contributing to economic inclusion in India.  At a small dinner I gave for him to meet some of India’s top companies, including main board directors of Reliance ADG, Mahindra and the Bombay Stock Exchange as well as an RBI Deputy Governor, the Lord Mayor was also able to quickly see how close the links are with the UK, with several guests announcing that they were off within hours or days to celebrate India’s wonderful Diwali Festival in London, rather than Mumbai!

Before leaving for Delhi and London the Lord Mayor visited one of Mumbai’s packed suburbs, with a mixed population of over 1.5M Hindus and Muslims squeezed into a few square miles, far less than the area covered by the City of London. There we saw how Standard Chartered Bank, which itself listed on the Bombay Exchange earlier this year, was making a contribution to the livelihood of some of Mumbai’s less well-off, providing funding for a number of eye-testing centres through its highly effective Seeing is Believing programme.