When chief secretary Rajbala Verma was shown an early version of what is today the official Momentum Jharkhand logo, she uttered a one word: cute.
Soon, the final version of the flying baby elephant logo was adorned with red and green, depicting Jharkhand's minerals and forests, prompting all in a committee headed by her to agree that it was the one.
"The logo represents strength, youthfulness and dreams to fulfil. The elephant is among the strongest of animals, but its nature is less agile compared to the tiger or lion that are aggressive in nature," explained Sunil Kumar Barnwal, state secretary of IT, industries, mines and geology.
"No one can match an elephant if it realises its strength. Similarly, Jharkhand has all these qualities but it will only get to its deserving place when the world is told about its strengths. Jharkhand wants its whole potential to be leveraged," he summed up.
The flying baby elephant was among 12 half-dozen designs presented before the committee in July last year by Mumbai-based PR firm Adfactors. Initially, there were many questions, not in the least about the choice since the elephant was Jharkhand's state animal.
But can an elephant fly?
"Technically, an elephant can't fly because of its sheer weight," admitted Mrinal Sapre, the accounts director of Adfactors.
"But by depicting a young elephant as one that has learnt to fly, a strong message is being communicated to the world that a young state like Jharkhand has overcome shackles of instability, policy hindrances and is ready to gain momentum," he said.
According to Sapre, when they joined hands with the state government last year, there wasn't a clear-cut brief on how the logo should look. The only requirement was that it should be completely fresh and had never been used in any global summit of the kind in the past.
"We held an in-house brainstorming session. Besides the elephant, we also worked on logos using tiger, palash flower, lion and a couple of other ideas," said Sapre.
As for the colours used, he said they kept in mind that Jharkhand was primarily known for minerals and forests. "While green denotes lush forests red is for minerals and soil. The other colours, orange and white dotted lines, depict tribal art forms of Jharkhand. The colours used represent the soul of Jharkhand," he said.
Finally, the logo was launched at the Jharkhand government road show in August last year in Delhi. It was hit.
Of late, the flying baby elephant makes regular appearances on various television channels and all government communication concerning the summit.
"Because in Jharkhand, business has no barriers. How best to symbolise this quest for making the impossible possible, other than using the state's animal to depict this urge," Sapre signed off.
