GUJARAT

Chief minister Bhupendra Patel on Monday said that export-driven Growth will strengthen the Indianeconomy.

Presiding over a pre-Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit (VGGS) event on Local Goes Global, he said exporting locally-produced goods will increase Foreign Exchange earnings and realize the vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat through the Vocal for Local initiative.

With facilities and assistance provided to exporters through the One District One Product programme, Gujarat has emerged as a leading exporter with a 30 per cent contribution to Indias total exports, the CM said.

Even as the 2021 edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit had to be postponed because of the global coronavirus pandemic, the Gujarat government has chalked out plans to organise the January 2022 summit on a bigger scale.

After Diwali, the government has planned a major Marketing drive for the event, focusing mainly on attracting Fortune 500 companies, especially in the fields of clean energy, fintech, integrated pharma and innovative technologies.

Following directives of the PM, Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit (VGGS) 2022 is being planned on a bigger scale compared to the last event of 2019. We are in the process of inviting all Fortune 500 companies from across the globe including Tesla, Google, Microsoft, Walmart, Master Card to name a few. More than 500 leading global companies to participate in the event and plan their new investments in Gujarat.

The government of India is inviting top international government agencies, international & trade bodies, major international companies and international influencers to the event.

Meanwhile, Crime in India in 2020, a report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has revealed that number of custodial deaths last year in Gujarat were the highest. Fifteen persons, who were in Police custody without remand, died in different districts of the state in 2020.

In 2019 too, the state was ranked second in custodial deaths across the country. Three accused had committed suicide while five died of illnesses and one from injuries sustained due to the physical assault while in custody, as per the NCRB report.

The is looking for tie-ups with other international boards too. A key source aware of the developments said, The state is considering a dedicated international board or a dedicated curriculum for theGujarat SecondaryandHigher Secondary Education Boardwhich can match international curricula. The move to adopt an international curriculum may mean not adhering to the model of the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training). But sources said that all states have been permitted under the new national education policy (NEP) to form their own curricula.

The state government is also in talks with the CISCE to build international curriculum in PARTNERSHIP with globally acclaimed educational boards. In the past also, the state government claimed to have ties with international boards, but such projects were gradually given up.

More than 14,000 fruit-bearing trees and Plants over 53,000 hectares of land in the state have been destroyed in last weeks cyclone, according to the initial estimates.Gujarat Energy Transmission Company Ltdand other power distribution companies also suffered damages to the tune of Rs 783 crore.

spokespersonRushikesh Patelsaid that cash doles worth Rs 1.23 crore have been distributed to persons who were evacuated to safer places ahead of Cyclone Biparjoys landfall in Gujarat. Electricity supply was disrupted in 6,486 villages of the state, and it has been restored in 5,753 villages, the state Health minister said.

Patel said that initial estimates show that Horticulture crops have been destroyed over 53,000 hectares. It is estimated that 14,887 fruit bearing trees have been destroyed in the cyclone. Our teams have still been surveying the damage to crops, the minister said.

With an ambitious target of having two lakhelectric vehicleson roads within a period of four years, the announced theGujarat Electric Vehicles Policy, 2021.

While the government has announced subsidies between Rs 20,000 and Rs1.5 lakh for different types of electric vehicles, it has also promised to ramp up charging Infrastructure for electric vehicles.

The policy has a four-fold objective of popularizing the use of e-vehicles, making Gujarat a hub for e-vehicle manufacturing, protecting the Environment, as well as encouraging start-ups and investors in the field of electric mobility.

There is a two percent improvement in gender ratio in Vadodara city and district. Authorities involved in the electoral roll revision process said that compared to the Population as per 2011 census, the revised electoral roll suggests an improvement in the gender ratio by 2%.

Going by the 2011 census, there were 934 females for every 1,000 males. The gender ratio has improved as there are 953 females for every 1,000 males.
The improved gender ratio in Vadodara came to Light during a meeting recently chaired by the superintendent ofstamps and electoral roll supervisor,Jenu Devan.

It came to light that as of April 1, Vadodara had 25,99,627 registered voters – 13,30,862 male, 12,68,539 female, and the rest 226 third gender.

Gujarat Technological University(GTU) has developed a method to test if aremdesivir injectiondose is real or fake.

Two pharmacy students, Malay Pandya and Nisarg Patel, have under the supervision of Dr Kashyap Thummar developed this method and members of the general public can send samples for verification.

Police have busted several units making fake remdesivir across the country, including in Gujarat, in the second wave of Covid-19. In one of the cases in Gujarat, an accused made the counterfeit anti-viral drug using a compound of glucose and salt. Last week, the local crime branch of Morbi busted a racket to sell fake remdesivir injections and detained six persons from Morbi, Ahmedabad, and Surat.

Due to the surge in Covid-19 cases in the country, there has been a huge demand for remdesivir. Over the past few weeks, several cases of hoarding and black Marketing of remdesivir have also been reported.

Industries ministerBalvantsinh Rajputsaid on Wednesday that the business-friendly policies of theGujaratgovernment had made the state a leader in .
He said Gujarat leads among all states in sectors like textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, ceramic, diamonds and others.

Speaking in the assembly on the budgetary demands of the state industries and mines department, the minister said Gujarat accounts for 33% of the countrys exports. With 18.14% of the countrys industrial production, Gujarat is ranked first in the country as far as industrial production is concerned,Rajputsaid. He stated that the manufacturing sector had enjoyed the largest share of the states GDP. State finance minister Kanubhai Desai had allocated Rs 8,589 crore for the industries and mines department.

Commenting on Gujarats share in theFDIthat the country has received, Rajput said, Gujarat has received Rs 18 lakh crore FDI in the past eight years, and this is 57% of the total Rs 32 lakh crore FDI that the country has received in this period.

Quoting Centres figures, the minister said that between 2010 and 2022, Gujarats share of Investment intentions filed was 16.3%, with investment intentions of Rs 14 lakh crore made during the period. He added that the Atmanirbhar schemes for Industry assistance have also received encouraging responses. Several companies have signed MoUs with the State Government to set up units across the state in various sectors.

The central government has allotted Rs 1,000 crore for strengthening the electricity distribution in the Rajkot district. The power ministry allotted the fund under a revamped distribution sector scheme.

According to a statement issued by the information department, the fund will be used in various projects like replacing open cables of 11KV with medium voltage cover control, replacing existing transformers with high-capacity ones, and others. A system to provide consumers with their daily power usage on a mobile app is in the pipeline so that they can regulate their daily consumption.