Vibrant Gujarat global investor summit (VGGIS)
Main article: Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor Summit
Narendra Modi with Lal Krishna Advani and India Inc Leaders during VGGIS 2003
The Government of Gujarat organized the biennial Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit (VGGIS).[5][6] Based on the theme – Gujarat Going Global and aimed at bringing together business leaders, investors, corporations, thought leaders, and policy and opinion makers; the summit serves as a perfect platform to understand and explore business opportunities with the State of Gujarat. First VGGSIS started in 2003 and 4th VGGIS completed during 12-13 January, 2009.
* VGGIS 2003 - Signed 76 MOUs worth US $14 billion[7]
* VGGIS 2005 - Signed MOUs for setting up projects worth INR 870 Billion[8]
* VGGIS 2007 - Signed 343 MOUs worth Rs 461835 crores. This includes Rs 14811 crore investments promised in 21 MoUs signed at an IT Summit. On the top of the investment brackets were 28 MoUs for Special Economic Zones with an investment tally of Rs 170,889 crores.[9]
* VGGIS 2009 - Signed 8668 MOUs having total investment of Rs.12,24,482 crores.[10]
Narendra Modi with Anil Ambani during VGGIS 2003
In VGGIS 2009 most prominent India Inc leader like Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, Sunil Mittal etc projected Narendra Modi for India's Prime Minister Post.[11] Tata group chief Ratan Tata, the chief guest of the occasion, echoed the general sentiment there when he said, It is stupid if you are not in Gujarat.[12] He said it was the right time to enter the state and stay for long.[13][14]
You are stupid if you are not (investing) here (in Gujarat)
– Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Group
It is a matter of great pride, pleasure and satisfaction for me to announce our intentions to sign in coming years MOU’s worth 70,000 crores (in Gujarat)
– Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Group
If Gujarat was a separate country, it would stand in a different league among some of world's most flourishing and prosperous countries
– Anil Dhirubhai Ambani
[edit] Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT)
Main article: Gujarat International Finance Tec-City
Gujarat International Finance Tec-City or GIFT[15][16][17] is an under-construction world-class[1] city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It will come up on 500 acres (2.0 km2) land. Its main purpose is to provide world-class physical infrastructure (electricity, water, gas, roads, telecoms and broadband), so that finance and tech firms can relocate their operations there from Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurgaon etc. where infrastructure is either very bad or very expensive.[2] It will have a special economic zone (SEZ),[18] international education zone, integrated townships, an entertainment zone, hotels, a convention center, an international techno park, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) units, shopping malls, stock exchanges and service units.
To develop and implement the Project, Government of Gujarat (GOG) through its undertaking Gujarat Urban Development Company Limited (GUDCOL) and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) have established a Joint Venture Company, "Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited" (GIFTCL).
[edit] Various Development Programs
These include the Panchamrut Yojana,[19],[20][21] a five-pronged strategy for an integrated development of the state; Sujalam Sufalam, a scheme to create a grid of water resources in Gujarat in an innovative step towards water conservation and its appropriate utilization.
• Krishi Mahotsav - agricultural research labs for the land
• Chiranjeevi Yojana - to reduce infant mortality rate
• Matru Vandana - providing preventive and curative services under the Reproductive and Child Health Programme
• Beti Bachao - campaign to protect baby girls to improve sex ratio
• Jyotigram Yojana - to electrify every village
• Karmayogi Abhiyan - to educate and train government employee
• Kanya Kelavani Yojana- to encourage the education of girls
• Balbhog Yojana - for midday meal for students
As a result of these yojanas, Gujarat has become the number one state in India in various perspectives. Gujarat has become a developed state within a developing country. Many scholars and India Inc. leaders suggest that if the Gujarat development model will be applied in all states in India, then India can easily become a developed nation.
[edit] The River linking project
The river linking project was initiated by the NDA government in India but it did not get implemented across country by successive governments. The Gujarat government kept working on this project and as a result 20 rivers in Gujarat got interconnected. The Saraswati River, which did not have water at all, got water from the Narmada River. The Sabarmati River, which was dry for 10 years, got water from the Narmada River, too. This project helped in spreading water across whole Gujarat. This eradicated the scarcity of water for farmers and helped them in cultivation.
[edit] The Sardar Sarovar Narmada Project
45,000 villages and towns which used to get drinking water once every 15 days now get it daily from the World's Largest Irrigation Network made possible by the Sardar Sarovar Project on Narmada. The Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam height was raised from 90 meters to 121.9 meters. This quenched the thirst of the people of 58 cities and 2700 villages across 11 districts.
[edit] Check dams for ground water recharging
A few years back, the water level was going down in Gujarat. The Gujarat government created 15,000 check dams in all Gujarat Rivers and major canals.[22][23][24] The river linking project also helped a lot in even distribution of water all over Gujarat. This ground water recharging resulted in rising ground water levels.
[edit] 108- Free Ambulance Service
Similar to 911 emergency services in USA, the Gujarat Government has started 108 emergency calling medical services.[25] For getting urgent medical attention patient needs to dial 108 and experts rush to help him. This service is right now fully functional in all rural/urban areas of Gujarat. Mobile ambulances are used to carry patients to hospitals. This helped a lot in reducing the cases of death because of delay in medical attention. According to Hyderabad-based Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) in the past one year since its launch at least 150,000 emergencies have been handled. ”I want to make the 108 Emergency Response Service (ERS) one of the eight wonders of the world,” said Venkat Changavalli, CEO of EMRI.[26] 400 ambulances have been deployed with trained staff and global position systems, mobile phones, public address systems, ventilators as well as life saving drugs to provide pre-hospital treatment to the victims while shifting them to the hospital from the place of incidence. The state has invested Rs. 1200 lakh for the operational expenditure of this service.
Road Development in Gujarat
[edit] Infrastructure development
Today Gujarat is number one state for infrastructure in India.[27] Gujarat is Petro-Capital of India[28] with India’s 54% crude oil production, 45% natural gas production. Gujarat has 2 LPG terminal and 2200KM of gas grid across state for distribution of gas. Gujarat is also SEZ capital of India with 18 Special Economic Zone's (SEZ) which is largest in all Indian states.[29]
Gujarat has 74000 KM of road, 13 airports (largest in country), 41 ports (largest in country),[30] Agro park, industrial parks. All these are best in India and most of these developed under Narendra Modi government.
[edit] Girl child education
The Gujarat government started the Kanya Kelavani Yojana[31] to encourage the education of girls. Kanya Kelavani Nidhi has been created with a long term goal that no girl in Gujarat remains illiterate and the efforts have started yielding results. In 2006-07, the dropout rate of girl child has dwindled to 3.68 from 20.81 in 2000-01 (Std. 1 to 5) and to 11.64 from as high as 36.30 (Std. 1 to 7).
The dwindling drop-out rates are equally supported by new enrolments through Kanya Kelavani Rath Yatra (girl enrolment drive), a unique initiative in Gujarat. Since 2003, every year in the month of June, the Chief Minister along with his team travels to remote villages to encourage parents to enrol their children in schools. It is a three day long state-wide drive covering all the villages and the urban areas in scorching summer heat. An atmosphere of festivity and celebration is created. The young children now wait keenly to get themselves enrolled into schools.
Another initiative is Vidyalaxmi scheme,[32] introduced during the last 5 years in villages where the female literacy rate is lower than 35% and in the urban areas for the girls belonging to the below-poverty-line families. A Vidyalaxmi bond of Rs. 1000/- is given to female students who take admission to the 1st Std. and 8th Std. The girl receives the amount of bond with interest on completion of Std. 7th and 10th respectively. This ensures higher retention rate.
[edit] 100% e-Connectivity (GSWAN)
Gujarat is today India's only state to have all its villages connected by internet. Under the e-governance scheme, the gram panchayat of every single village in the state has been provided internet connection and direct connectivity to Gandhinagar. The Modi government started GSWAN (Gujarat State Wide Area Network) which is Asia Pacific’s largest IP based network for e-governance.
Jyotigram-Yojna
[edit] Jyotigram-Yojana (24 Hour Power Supply)
In India there was not a single village that had electricity available 24 hours a day.[33] Within 1000 days, the Gujarati government electrified all 18000 villages with a 3-phase 24 hour electricity supply through Jyotigram Yojana.[34] This helped a lot of the rural areas in education, IT, small scale industries, etc. The Gujarat electricity board had a deficit of 2500 crore Rs which, because of conscious efforts of the government, has now been converted into 400 crore of profit.
[edit] Krishi Mahotsav
Krishi Mahotsav[35] is a knowledge sharing rendezvous of the farming community, a month-long event that brings together the farming community, government officials, scientists and many more individuals connected to agriculture. This event facilitates the seamless flow of knowledge from the agricultural research labs to the land. It includes practical demonstrations of modern agricultural methods, the answering of tool and guidance queries, and the solution of problems. The festive mood this event brings groups of millions of farmers as the Krishi Raths travel through thousands of villages. Not caring about the heat and dust, the cabinet ministers, officials and hundreds of dedicated workers travel to remote villages to facilitate the process of knowledge sharing. Over 227 Kisan Raths (mobile exhibitions) drive through all the villages of Gujarat to celebrate this festival of productivity. Year after year the Krishi Mahotsav has been considerably improving productivity through knowledge sharing and orientation of farmers towards value added agriculture, modern marketing methods, organic farming and new technology.
[edit] Chiranjeevi Yojana
India stands on the 127th position in the Human Development Index (HDI). In India, 6 lakh villages have approximately 2000 gynaecologists. To reduce the infant mortality rate, the Gujarat Government started the "Chiranjeevi Yojana" in December 2005.[36][37] They started public/private partnerships in the health sector. The Gujarat Government told private sector doctors to treat BPL pregnant women and save their lives with the Government bearing the doctors’ fees, which is approximately Rs. 2000.[38] Due to this scheme in one year, 158,000 women have benefitted. In the absence of this scheme, 6000 pregnant women could have died in just one year. So far, 312,248 women have been saved as 867 private specialists were associated. The Government of Gujarat was awarded with the Asia Innovation Awards for the "Chiranjeevi Yojana" on 30.10.2006.
[edit] Soil Health Card Scheme
Gujarat is the first state that issues a Soil Health Card Scheme for land to farmers.[39] Now every farmer takes a soil specimen and provides it to scientists who examine the mineral composition in the soil. Based on this analysis they provide the fertilizer with the appropriate mineral percentages. This helps in soil enrichment and also reduces the erosion of the land to a great extent. Earlier Gujarati farmers were only able to grow one crop a year. Now because of balanced fertilizer, farmers are able to grow three crops every year, which also increases their profit threefold.
[edit] E-governance for Anti Corruption
The Gujarat Government started many initiatives for e-governance and to curb corruption with the help of IT.
* 'Tele-fariyad' -[40] a unique grievance addressing system
* 'Swagat Online' -[41] a model case of e-transparency and accountability.
* 'Gyaan Ganga Project' -[42] for rural wireless connectivity.
[edit] National Accreditation Board of Hospitals
The state government has decided to improve the standards of medical services of the district hospitals as per the standards of the NABH to provide quality hospital services to the people of the state. The Government has planned to obtain accreditation of each of the district hospitals during the celebration of the ‘Swarnim Jayanti year 2010’. 16 district hospitals have been identified for the same. A grant of Rs. 9.22 crore in the year 2007-08 and Rs. 25 crore in the year 2008-09 have been disbursed to create necessary infrastructure, human resources, etc to obtain the accreditation. A provision of Rs. 8 crore has been made for the year 2009-10 as well. As per the latest position, 7 general hospitals and 1 district hospital have been covered under the NABH.[43]
[edit] Trauma Center
An approximate 80,000 people die in road traffic accidents on national and state highways and most of these deaths occur due to non availability of Emergency Medical Services near the accident sites. The state government has upgraded various government hospitals along the national and state highways with the aim to save valuable lives. Facilities of trauma centres have been created with modern medical equipments and specialist doctors.[43]
[edit] Bal Shakha Yojana
The implementation of this scheme shall ensure children's right to survive. The state aims to achieve the goal of reduction of current infant mortality rate from 50 to 30 by 2010. Under the Bal Shakha Yojana, 225 private paediatricians have joined to provide services to the BPL infants. The entire cost of consultation will be borne by the Government. By March 2009, 1558 neonates have been benefited.[43]
[edit] School Health Program
A major initiative has been taken to provide high quality tertiary care to school children and to give children with acute problems the best possible treatment. 1.46 crore children have been screened so far and more than 16 lakh children were provided with the treatment on the spot. 1.51 lakh children were provided with spectacles free of cost. 2435 children have been treated for heart ailments, 812 children for kidney ailments and 800 for cancer. 75 children were referred to super specialists outside the state.[43]
[edit] Saraswati Yojana
As a part of the annual plan 2009-10, the budget provision for Literacy and Continuing Education is Rs. 21.49 crore. The main objective of this programme is to make people between the age group of 15 to 35 and above able to read and write and do simple arithmetical calculations at least in their mother tongue. A provision of about Rs. 18 crore has been made to cover 45 lakh people.[43]
[edit] New Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools
Since the yojanas for more enrolment and lower dropout rates have been successful, it is estimated that enrolment in secondary and higher secondary schools would also increase. To ensure that the education of those passing out of primary schools is not disrupted, the existing criteria for having secondary and higher secondary schools are being relaxed to a certain extent. The radius within which at least one secondary school should be opened would now be reduced to 5 km form 10 km and for higher secondary schools from 15 km to 7 km. Rs. 62.5 crore is provided for distribution of free text books in primary schools. 200 new secondary and higher secondary schools are to be started in the year 2009-10.[43]
[edit] Education through satellites
In order to make learning joyful, the use technology will be made for classroom teaching using audio visual techniques and distance education. Gyaan Darshan and the Government’s own Edusat up linking facility in BISAG (Bhaskaracharya Institute of Space Applications and Geosciences) are being used. This would ensure uniform quality and reduce loss in communication while teaching. During the year 2009-10, a total of 3073 schools will be covered under this scheme with the outlay of Rs. 438 lakh.[43]
[edit] Higher Education
Gujarat is fast emerging as a hub for specialized education with the setting up of specialized universities in disciplines like petroleum, forensic sciences, security, animal husbandry, education of children and law and teachers’ training. 7 high quality zones have been planned adjacent to major urban areas. SCOPE and Gujarat Knowledge Society will impart vocational education to increase employability of youth through development of sector specific skills. Seats in technical education have been more than doubled in the past five years and more expansion is planned through Public Private Partnerships. The Gujarat State Skill Mission has been set up to integrate the programmes of 12 departments conducting skill development programmes. It is planned to invest Rs. 200 crore on skill development and training and cover 1.25 lakh individuals.[43]
[edit] Balika Samriddhi Yojana
A provision of Rs. 10 crore is made for the year 2009-10 for this yojana. The girl child eligible under this scheme will be entitled to the following benefits:
* A post birth grant of Rs. 5,000/-
* If born after 15 August 1997 and covered under this scheme, a girl attending regular school will be entitled to an annual scholarship for each year. It varies from Rs. 300/- to Rs. 1,000/- from Std. 1st to 10th.[43]
[edit] Anganwadi Building Construction
The state government has made a provision of Rs. 100 crore in the year 2009-10 for the Anganwadis not functioning in their own building. Unit cost of Rs. 3 lakh per building having been fixed, all buildings are planned to be completed in the next 5 years. A provision of Rs. 10 crore has been made for repairs of existing ones in a bad condition.[43]
[edit] Road Development in Gujarat
Today Gujarat is the number one state for infrastructure in India. Gujarat is the Petro-Capital of India with India’s 54% crude oil production, 45% natural gas production being done here. Gujarat has 2 LPG terminals and 2200KM of gas grid across the state for distribution of gas. Gujarat is also SEZ capital of India with 18 Special Economic Zones (SEZ) which is the largest in all Indian states. Gujarat has 74000 KM of road, 13 airports (largest in country), 41 ports (largest in country), an Agro park and industrial parks. All these are the best in India and most of these were developed under the Narendra Modi government which has lasted for over 7 years now.[43]
[edit] Achievements of Gujarat
* The first state to implement the BOT Law for encouraging private sector participation.
* The first state to have two fully functional LNG terminals.
* The first state to implement the interlinking of 20 rivers.
* The first state to provide uninterrupted 24hour 3phase electricity to its 18000 villages
[edit] Promotion of Muslims
Under Modi, Gujarat has been one of the most generous states in doling out money to Muslim applicants to educational institutions[44]
[edit] Awards and recognitions
More than 60 awards bagged by the state during the tenure of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.[45][46]
* 16-10-2003 - UN Sasakawa Award for outstanding work in the field of disaster management and risk reduction.[47]
* October 2004 - CAPAM Gold Award from Commonwealth Associations for innovations in governance.[48][49]
* 26-08-2004 - Gujarat bagged top honour's for its performance in the power sector as President A P J Abdul Kalam[50]
* 24-02-2005 - Nirmal gram award to a village in Rajkot district in Gujarat by Government of India for sanitation facilities.[51]
* 25-04-2005 - Elitex Award by Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India Science and Technology Department for "PRAGATI", a GIS Software developed by Bhaskracharya Institute of Space Application and Geo-informatics, Government of Gujarat
* 21-05-2005 - Gujarat awarded the status of the Best State after a survey of all the states in the country, carried out by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, New Delhi.[52][53]
* 01-06-2005 - UNESCO Asia Pacific Heritage Award for reconstruction of a Gurudwara damaged during the earthquake.[54][55]
* 05-08-2005 - Best Investment environment Award by India today
* 05-08-2005 - Most Economic Freedom Award by India Today
* 27-11-2005 - Gujarat won the first ever Gold Award at the India International Trade Fair at New Delhi.[56]
* 14-10-2005 - Readers of the Gujarati weekly "Chitralekha" rated Shri Narendra Modi as "Person of the Year". Tennis star Sania Mirza was ranked second and superstar Amitabh Bachchan stood third. Awards were given away on 18-05-2006.
* 12-11-2005 - India Tech Excellence Award by India Tech Foundation for Power sector reforms and Initiatives
* 30-01-2006 - In a nationwide survey conducted by "India Today", Shri Narendra Modi was declared the Best Chief Minister of the country.
* 23-03-2006 - Nirmal gram award by Government of India to a few villages of Gujarat for sanitation facilities
* 31-07-2006 - Gujarat again ranks first in the country in "Implementation of 20 point programme".
* 02-08-2006 - Gujarat tops among 35 states of the country in "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan".
* 12-09-2006 - Ahalyabai National Award function, Indore.
* 30-10-2006 - Asian Innovation Award at Singapore from Wall Street Journal and the Financial Express for Chiranjeevi Yojana (initiative for reducing maternal and infant mortality rate).[38]
* 04-11-2006 - E-governance award to e-dhara project (computerization of land records)
* 27-11-2006 - Silver Award the India International Trade Fair 2006
* 10-01-2007 - ELITEX 2007 -Best E-governed State Award from Government of India
* 05-02-2007 - Adjudged the best CM for the third time in the nationwide survey conducted by India Today - ORG Marg, a unique achievement for any Cm during a 5 year tenure
* 10-12-2008 - Gujarat Wins Wind Power Award.[57]
* 29-01-2009 - Gujarat received five awards for the best use of information and technology from administrative reforms and public grievances and Information technology department of the Central government.[58]
