Mukesh Ambani has been making headlines at the Progressive Punjab Investors’ Summit – from landmark developments to an historic indication of collaboration with Sunil Mittal. On the last day of the summit, there was another reason to cheer for the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) MD and Chairman; he announced that he would personally be funding facilities to develop hockey and football skills among Punjab’s youth. Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said, “He will help Punjab develop state-of-the art infrastructure for hockey, soccer and basketball.”
This comes back on the back of Ambani promising to promote basketball by providing coaching and infrastructure facilities to over one lakh children in the North-Indian State. Ambani isn’t the first to do make huge promises in Punjab. ITC Chairman Y.C. Deveshwar has in fact promised to set up a huge food park between Ludhiana and Jalandhar. The Punjab Government was supposed to be involved in setting up an appropriate site for the same.
Ambani has developed a reputation as a savior of sport in many circles recently. He is of course the owner of Mumbai Indians and has also signed a deal with IMG to bring top class football to India. This development in Punjab signals his true intent to invest in sports as he feels the country hasn’t perhaps achieved what it can based on the sheer number of people here.
The rapid development of Punjab isn’t restricted to sports in particular. Take for example the new bank square in Mohali which will be bigger than the one in Chandigarh. The Deputy CM said of the same, “We will bring all major national and international banks to operate from Mohali at one place. Besides, I have already been flooded with requests by various industrial sectors who are looking forward to invest in healthcare. By next year, we will have a Medicity in Mohali having nearly 300 hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres at one place. Some of the healthcare centres will also have medical colleges.”
The governmnet has also announced ambitious plans for Amritsar, Mohali and Ludhiana with regards to hosting business events. Citing a lack of venues for the same, constructing new business venues with seating capacity of 2,500 are up for discussions.