Johannesburg, Aug 14 (PTI): Over 10,000 people attended India Day, hosted by the India Club of South Africa, at the iconic Wanderers Cricket Stadium here to celebrate India's Independence Day.

India Club has been hosting the event annually, but had to suspend it in the last two years due to the Covid pandemic.

“Covid actually gave us an opportunity to recharge and spend more time planning our flagship event to be even better,” said India Club President Manish Gupta on Saturday.

“The venue was moved to the Wanderers because it just kept outgrowing the venue each year, where we previously used the Zoo Lake and the rugby stadium in Johannesburg,” he said.

Gupta said that the 45 Indian companies who exhibited at the event ranged from well-established ones such as the State Bank of India, which was marking its silver jubilee in South Africa, to some startups.

“We were very keen to give small, medium and micro enterprises opportunity to showcase their offering to the thousands of expatriates and South African-born Indians and other South African communities that attended,” Gupta said.

The 12-hour non-stop entertainment programme featured cultural items by various organisations representing different states of India, as well as local entertainers. Food stalls offered the diverse cuisine of India.

“India Day aims to unite the cultures of our two countries through merging culture, food, language and people. We had a group from Soweto participating and even a Turkish food stall,” Gupta added.

The India Business Forum (IBF), participating in India Day for the first time, aimed to enlist more membership from both the Indian companies invested in India and South African companies interested in in trading with India.

“Our main interest in being a sponsor and having a presence here is to have visibility and to let people know what IBF is all about,” said IBF Chairman Praveer Tripathi, who added that the organisation plans to move away from being Johannesburg-centric and open branches in other economic hubs in South Africa such as Durban and Cape Town.

Mahindra displayed its newest vehicles at India Day for the first time to the public.

“For us, as a brand coming out of India, this 75th anniversary celebration of Independence Day is an opportune moment to showcase our new generation of SUVs to people in for the first time in South Africa,” said CEO of Mahindra SA, Rajesh Gupta.

“By the time we launch, which is targeted for the end of October, we hope to have created enough interest in this new range,” Gupta said. PTI FH MRJ MRJ

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