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Modi asks the rich to hold destination weddings in India

Modi had given a similar call during his last Mann Ki Baat programme to affluent business families to hold destination weddings in the country instead of going abroad.

Narendra Modi (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

By: Mohnish Singh

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said India needs a movement like ‘Wed in India’ on the lines of ‘Made in India’ and asked affluent industrialists to hold at least one destination wedding in their families each year in Uttarakhand, saying it will help the hill state emerge as a wedding destination.

Addressing the inaugural session of the Uttarakhand Global Investors Summit at the FRI in Dehradun, he said it has become fashionable among millionaire and billionaire business families to go abroad for destination weddings.

Modi had given a similar call during his last Mann Ki Baat programme to affluent business families to hold destination weddings in the country instead of going abroad.

“There is an old saying that marriages are made in heaven. But then why are young couples going abroad for their wedding instead of coming to the land of gods (Devbhoomi)? My prescription to the young and rich couples is that there should be a movement like ‘Wed in India’ on the lines of Made in India,” he said.

“Wed in India,” Modi said, adding if the practice of holding destination weddings in Uttarakhand begins and continues for five years it will emerge as an international wedding destination.

“If rich business families start holding their family marriages in Uttarakhand once a year for the next five years and even if 5,000 marriages start taking place here in a year, a suitable infrastructure will grow and it will emerge as a major wedding destination,” he said.

“India has great power. If you decide collectively and make a beginning, anything can happen,” he said.