GUJARAT

The excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at Vadnagar, PM Narendra Modis hometown, since 2015 have unearthed the ancient town and, overall, the regions Buddhist past. The finds include multiple votive stupas, relics, artifacts, and structures. Experts said that along with the nearby Taranga hills, the region gives a snapshot of about 1,400 years of .

The major finds from the excavations by the state archaeology department in the 2000s and later excavations by the ASI at Vadnagar and Taranga are on display at the three-day international Buddhist symposium at Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh. The symposium will be inaugurated by PM Modi on Wednesday, Buddha Purnima.

According to experts, startups raising more funds is a function of a maturing startup ecosystem inGujarat. Explaining this, Anupam Jalote, CEO, International Centre for and Technology (iCreate), said, Increasing number of investors are now seeing startup funding as a good avenue for investing their corpus, as startups reflect promising Growth. The surge in the quantum of funds raised is also a reflection of a maturing ecosystem.

Jalote further explained that in the post-pandemic digital boom, a large chunk of tech startups such as providers of AI-driven solutions, fintech startups and even those in the electric vehicle segment are raking in the maximum funds followed by the other sectors.

A three-day Combined Commanders’ Conference l began at Kevadia in Gujarat.

Theaterisation of armed forces, self-reliance in DEFENCE sector and evolving threats in the region will be the focus areas during the three-day annual event.

During the conference, the setting up a new air defence command and maritime command is likely to be discussed at length.

The formation of theatre commands will synergise the capabilities and combat potential of the three forces during war and peace.

According to data by theNational Stock Exchange(NSE), the total number of investors from Gujarat stood at 69 lakh in the fiscal year 2023, up 2.8x since fiscal year 2013. The number of investors increased sharply since the Covid pandemic, as 60% of these investors were registered after April 2020. Experts attribute the rising number of investors to greater awareness, lower bank interest rates and improved financial Literacy, besides better gains.

The Investment into equities from Gujarat has increased sharply over the past decade. Ten years ago, Gujarat accounted for 7% (Rs 1,568 crore) in the daily Average turnover of Indian investors. This has grown to 13% at Rs 13,961 crore during the fiscal year 2023,” said a top official of NSE on condition of anonymity. He added, “Gujarat based investors’ investment Growth rate has now surpassed the national average.”

Technology is one of the biggest factors that lured young professionals into opening demat accounts and beginning their investment journey, according to Industry players. A slew of websites and apps which simplify trading coupled with better gains on investments have lured many youngsters.

The state governmentsGujarat Biotechnology Research Centrealong with Hester Biosciences andOmniBRxhas firmed up its discussions withBharat Biotechto scale up the Covaxin technology and to produce minimum 20 million doses per month, said the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under theUnion ministry of Science and Technology.

A triparty consortium has been formed with the government of Gujarat as the lead partner, to explore the prospects of manufacturing theCovidvaccine through technology from Bharat Biotech.

All construction sites in the city will now be required to install dustpollutionmeasuring sensors that will provide real time data to the civic body for monitoring.

This was necessitated after dust pollution (chiefly PM10 or particles with diameters of 10 micrometres or less) from such sites has given Ahmedabad the dubious distinction of being among the worst six cities in the country on this parameter since 2017-18, according to data provided by the ministry of Environment and forests in the recent Lok Sabha session.

According to the rules, builders have to ensure that water is sprinkled on the site every day, there is proper covering with barricades and temporary roads at the site are paved.

In wake of acute shortage of hospital beds and ever growing queues outside designated hospitals following a record spike in Covid-19 cases, Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani announced on Tuesday night that all hospitals, private clinics and Nursing homes can now admit and treat Covid-19 patients without obtaining any prior nod from the government. The hospitals, clinics and nursing homes will only have to inform the respective district or authority.

This decision was taken at the core committee meeting chaired by the CM, who said that although more than 78,000 beds have been made available for Covid-19 patients, spiralling cases are stretching available Resources.

Data tabled by the Union Government in the Lok Sabha on Monday shows thatGujarathas the third highest number of ‘out of school children’ (OoSC) at the elementary level. The only two states that have higherOoSCnumbers areUttar PradeshandBihar.

While UP has the highest number of OoSC at 3,96,665, Bihar is second with 1,34,252. Gujarat ranks third with 1,06,885 children not admitted in any primary class.Under the Samagra Shiksha scheme of the Union government, all states and union territories (UTs) need to conduct household surveys for identification of OoSC. The department of school Education and Literacy has developed an online module for compiling data on OoSCs identified by each state and UT on the PRABANDH portal.

Even as theGujarat governmentwill implement revised jantri rates from April 15, it is actively considering a proposal to reducestamp dutyand registration fee on purchase of properties, top sources in said. A finance bill listing out revised stamp duty and registration fee rates is expected to be introduced in the budget session of theGujaratassembly, which begins later this month.

Reduction in stamp duty and registration fee has been a long-standing demand of the real estate sector, which has made several representations to the government over this concession. At present, property registration attracts a stamp duty of 4.9% and a registration fee of 1%. Female buyers are exempt from the 1% registration fee.

Government revenue from stamp duty and registration fee recorded a healthy 19% rise in 2022 as compared to the previous year. The number of properties registered in 2022 in the state stood at 15,97,188, 11% higher than 14,29,607 properties that were registered in the state in the preceding calendar year. Government revenue from stamp duty and property registration also shot up from 7,337.9 crore in 2021 to 8,769 crore in 2022.

TheNational Bank for Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and Rural Development(NABARD) on Tuesday announced thatGujarats priority sector credit potential stood at Rs 2.46 lakh crore for the upcoming financial year 2022-23.The announcement was made as part of the annual state credit seminar organized at the chief ministers officein Gandhinagar.

According to estimates provided by NABARD, the estimated credit potential has gone up from Rs 2.24 lakh crore in 2021-22 up 10%. Of the total credit potential estimated for priority sector, agriculture and allied sectors account for Rs 1.13 lakh crore,MSMEsector accounts for Rs 1.09 lakh crore and other priority sectors account for Rs 26,255.2 crore.

NABARD has been regularly monitoring the potential flow of bank credit towards priority sector across all the districts of Gujarat through its potential linked credit plans. NABARD officials appealed to banks to ensure credit flow in priority sector advances to meet the targeted credit disbursals.