Industrialist Mukesh Ambani, veteran industry leader Ratan Tata, steel baron L N Mittal and Adani Group head Gautam Adani were among the who's who of corporate India present at the grand swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet of Ministers here Thursday.
As the evening descended in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhawan, leading luminaries like RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, Essar Director Prashant Ruia, Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran, Vedanta Chairman Anil Aggarwal and HDFC Deepak Parekh walked in for the grand ceremony.
Tata and Chandrasekaran were among the early arrivals at the venue, and were seen engaged in discussions as the other guests arrived on the red carpet. Sharing seats in the front row, along with the Tata top executives, was TV baron Rajat Sharma.
The RBI Governor also arrived early for the high-profile ceremony marking Modi's second tenure as the PM.
Mukesh Ambani came with wife Neeta and youngest son Anant, while his Group Executive and Rajya Sabha MP Parimal Nathani arrived separately.
The business leaders mingled with Cabinet ministers and senior BJP functionaries including Amit Shah as they waited for the proceedings to begin.
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After a landslide election victory in the 17th Lok Sabha elections, Modi-led BJP had secured 303 seats on its own. The swearing-in ceremony, administered by President Ram Nath Kovind, for the Modi 2.0 government is a grand affair with an estimated over 6,000 invitees.
These include leaders from the BIMSTEC countries, former PM Manmohan Singh, chief ministers, corporate honchos and a galaxy of film stars.
Other prominent faces included NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand, Bharti Group's Rakesh Bharti Mittal and Rajan Bharti Mittal, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, IT industry veteran NR Narayana Murthy, Videocon's Rajkumar Dhoot, Kalyan Jewellers Managing Director T S Kalyanaraman Iyer and Nepal's CG Group Chairman Binod Choudhary.