GUJARAT

Six decades after its formation, thedry stateofGujaratfaces the challenge to defend its policy of on purchase, possession and consumption ofliquorin the state after the Gujarat High Court on Monday dismissed its preliminary objections to petitions questioning certain provisions of the legislation mainly on the ground of Right to Privacy.

The bench discarded the State Government‘s argument that provisions of the Bombay Prohibition Act were upheld by the Bombay high court and later by The Supreme Court in 1951 and therefore, any question about validity of the present Gujarat Prohibition Act is not maintainable before the high court, but before the apex court only.

The present petitions question prohibition of import, transfer, possession and buying of liquor, ban on a person’s entry in Gujarat in the state of intoxication, prohibition on selling liquor to anyone except permit holder, permit to use or consumer liquor on warships, troopships and in messes and canteen of armed forces.

Comparing the figure with other states, in the same period Odisha increased the budget spending by 55%, Maharashtra 51%, Rajasthan 50% and Madhya Pradesh 47%. Among the major states, only Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal were behind Gujarat. Year-on-year increase was just 1.6% from 2019-20 to 2020-21.

The RS data further revealed that 93% of the funds in 2020-21 went to the rural areas (National Rural Health Mission) and remaining 7% to urban areas (National Urban Health Mission). The year was the most crucial for the health spending due to the pandemic that swept across the region and caused high mortality in several cities including Ahmedabad and Surat.

National Health Policy 2017 categorically instructed the states to increase health expenditure as a Percentage of GDP from existing 1.15% to 2.5%. In case of Gujarat, the figure remained around 0.6% of the GDP.

The State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (Sotto) made amendments to Gujarat Deceased Organ and Tissue Transplantation Guidelines (G-Dot) documents, including removing the need to producedomicile papersand the upper age limit to receivecadaver organs.

“The directives 13.1 of G-Dothas been amended to remove the need for a domicile certificate. Directive 13.10 (B) will have a five-point roster where organs 1, 3, and 5 will go to non-government hospitals from a common pool and 2 and 4 to government hospitals. The fee under directive 13.10 (C) for registration of cadaver donation has been waived off.

Exports ofmarine products from Gujarattook a beating in fiscal 2020-21 due to the disruption in export markets, especially China.

The states marine exports declined by 17% to Rs 4,137 crore in 2020-21 from Rs 4,985 crore in the previous financial year, shows data from theSeafoodExporters Association of India (SEAI).

Exports in volume terms dipped by about 20% to 2 lakh tonnes in 2020-21 compared to 2.51 lakh tonnes. Seafood exports from Gujarat have declined due to Covid-19 induced disruptions in export markets, especially China, loss of fishing days on account of the pandemic as well as depleting catches, said Jagdish Fofandi, national president, Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI).

The decline in exports to China pulled down overall exports from the state, which is among the top seafood exporters in India.

Seafood exports to China plummeted by 41% to Rs 1,287 crore in 2020-21 from Rs 2,197 crore in 2019-20. Exports in volumes dropped to71,637 tonnes from 1.26 lakh tonnes during the same period. Exports to Southeast Asia and the Middle East also declined. However, the reductions were not as steep as China.

TheCentral Pollution Control Board(CPCB) has not carried out sampling for the comprehensive environmental pollution index (CEPI) since 2019. Industrial entities fromGujaratraised this issue with the Union Environment ministry.

Representatives from the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and (GCCI) on Tuesday met senior officials in the ministry and raised the issues of CEPI sampling and hazardous Waste Management. GCCI said that the performance of common effluent treatment Plants (CETPs) in the state has improved over the last few year, but CPCB last carried out CEPI sampling in 2018 and after that had declared the Ankleshwar, Vapi, Vadodara,Vatva, Narol, Surat, Rajkot industrial clusters “critically polluted” and Bhavnagar as “severely polluted”. These classifications did not follow the revised CEPI guidelines of 2016.

Unabated rise in corona cases in Gujarat has triggered a Health emergency of sorts.

It was one of the highest daily surges at 13% in recent times. Daily death toll rose by 20% as the state recorded deaths of 45 patients, one of the highest in the past 11months.
The biggest cause of concern remained erratic supply of Oxygen, which is literally, the lifeline for Covid-19 patients rendered gasping for breath by the coronavirus.

According to data provided by the Union Government inParliament, total fish production in the country was 162 lakh metric tonnes in 2021-22. According to the state department, fish production inGujaratin 2021-22 was 8.74 lakh tonnes, about 5% of the countrys fish production.

According to the Gujarat fisheries department, in 2021-22, production inthe state was 6.88 lakh tonnes of marine fish and 1.86 lakh tonnes of inland fish, for a total of 8.74 lakh tonnes.

According to the Livestock census 2007, there are 2.18 lakh active fishermen among a Population of 5.59 lakh fishermen in 1,058 fishing villages in the state.
In 2020-21, 28,355 mechanical boats and 8,625 non-mechanical boats were registered with the government, for a total of 36,980 boats.

Revenue from marine fishing in Gujarat in 2021-22 was Rs 7,659 crore, and revenue from inland fishing was Rs 3,561 crore, for a total revenue from fish production of Rs 11,220 crore.

InGujarat which has the ignominy of being known as the oral cancer capital of India farmers in North and Central Gujarat are raking in the moolah fromtobacco.

Tobacco was sown on 63,800 hectares in 2004, and this number has risen to 1.38 lakh hectares for the 2023 winter crop, a 116% increase. Gujarat accounts for 48% of the countrys total tobacco production of 8 lakh tonnes.
Experts say there are many factors for this, tobacco is a cash crop and keeps away wild animals such as nilgai and wild boar which may graze on and destroy . The greater availability of water has also increased tobacco acreage.
According to figures from the Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture department, the acreage sown with tobacco was 68,200 hectares in 2003-04, and rose to 92,900 hectares in 2013-14 and to 1.38 lakh hectares as of January 2023.

The figures show that till 2013-14, about 95% of tobacco was grown in the Charotar region Anand, Kheda and Vadodara districts. However, in 2013-14, it started to be grown in North Gujarat, which now accounts for 30% of tobacco acreage, mainly in the districts of Mehsana, Banaskantha, Patan and Sabarkantha. In Central Gujarat, 96% of the area sown with tobacco is in Kheda and Anand districts.

MS Universityhas signed an MoU with the department of https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change ofGujaratgovernment.

The MoU was signed in presence of Gujarat chief ministerBhupendra Patelon Monday during building a climate-resilient Gujarat a climate change outreach programme that was organised by the department at science city in Ahmedabad. Several schemes and aid were announced as well asMoUsexecuted during the programme.

Gujarat was the first state to set up a separate department for climate change in 2009.
The State Government has gradually increased the budget of the climate change department in the last 12 years. Gujarat government has provided Rs 910 crore in the budget this year.