The three-day mela will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Monday. Other private sector companies who have confirmed their participation are Delhi-based picture tube maker Samtel, Padmini Polymers, Marico Industries, Exide, Nirma, Adani Exports and Ramesh Chauhan's Bisleri.

Even Jet Airways, which had a substantial foreign equity till an year ago, is out to impress the proponents of swadeshi within and outside the government.

And, the corporates are not the only ones singing the swadeshi tune. Each day of the mela will have cultural evenings featuring some of the top Bollywood stars includingMadhuri Dixit, Anil Kapur, Govinda, Hema Malini, Ayesha Julka, ghazal singer Pankaj Udhas and singers Jaspinder Narula, Anuradha Paudwal and Sukhwinder Singh.

"We are getting a tremendous response. Not only will the companies display their products, they will get trade opportunities as foreign delegations are expected to visit the fair" said Rita Verma, member of parliament and convener of the mela.

The SJM has promised to bring-out the best in `Bhartiya' trade and industry] in the meal with the chief objective being to put `Bhartiya' economy on the global map.

The mela will also receive participation from union ministries. The ministry of civil aviation, railway ministry and the ministry of bio-technology have booked space at a steep Rs 9,000 per square metre.

Amongst the public-sector units that have confirmed participation are NTPC, NHPC, SAIL, HAL, IOC, and MTNL. Finance minister Yashwant Sinha, industry minister Sikander Bakht, and commerce minister Ramakrishna Hegde are expected to come callingon the participants.

However, not every business house is enthused with the swadeshi bug. Swdeshi-to-the-core companies like NIIT, Dabur, Max India and Ranbaxy will not be seen on the fair. Some of these companies are not aware of the mela's existence, others found the price of participation too steep.

"The fair will end-up clashing with the CII engineering fair which is on next month. We did not budget for two melas at the same time" said sources of a Delhi-based business group.

While the Thapar group and the Birlas have confirmed participation, Telco is still making-up its mind. And the Government cannot permit its pride and the people's car, Maruti, to be on display as it does not meet the swadeshi criteria, which requires a company to be at least 51 per cent owned by Indian shareholders.